Many big tech hardware makers are expanding into services. Hewlett-Packard last year bought Electronic Data Systems; Dell agreed last month to buy Perot Systems; and Xerox cut a deal for Affiliated Computer Services, also last month.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, not busy enough already with his various acquisitions, has been ensnared in a spy drama involving an employee of his BMW Oracle yacht racing team.
Yesterday’s rumors about a potential acquisition by Oracle of Red Hat have apparently faded, but Larry Ellison’s appetite for doing deals is never sated. Whether or not Oracle decides to take a run at Red Hat, it is not going out on a limb to suggest that at some point Ellison is going to get the itch and make more acquisitions.
More analysts are cutting estimates on Oracle ahead of its earnings report on Dec. 18. David Hilal of Friedman Billings Ramsey expects the company to perform at the low end of guidance. But while Oracle is expected to implement cost-cutting measures–with only 23 percent loss in stock price (compared to 41 percent for the Nasdaq Composite and 39 percent on the S&P 500)–at least it’s beating the market. For now, anyway.
Tomorrow afternoon, the stock market will turn its weary eyes to you, Larry Ellison.
After the close Thursday, Oracle (ORCL) will report results for its fiscal first quarter ended August. The company’s previous guidance was for revenue to be up 18-20 percent on a year-over-year basis, with new software license revenue up 10-20 percent.
If you think Oracle’s acquisition spree is nearly completed, you ought to guess again.
In a research report, Bernstien Research analyst Charles DiBona today asserts that Oracle is almost certainly going to continue spending billions on additional acquisitions. He notes that CEO Larry Ellison last summer projected that the company would hit $50 billion in annual revenue by FY 2012.
Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang has not resorted to boorish tactics like calling Steve Ballmer a sociopath or comparing him to Genghis Khan, but his determination to fight off an unsolicited merger with Microsoft at all costs is starting to recall Craig Conway’s ill-fated battle with his former boss at Oracle, Larry Ellison.
Jerry Yang must be starting to understand how Alfred Chuang of BEA Systems felt when Larry Ellison of Oracle came calling last year. Like Chuang, the Yahoo boss has just been landed with a takeover offer at such a big premium that he can’t possibly just ignore it. Also like Chuang, the options for other deals–or for staying independent–are shrinking fast. Here are the other partnerships or alliances that Yang could have grabbed at in the last year or so, and the chances that he can turn to them again now as he looks for an alternative to Microsoft …
Oracle had another tremendous quarter, thanks again to its strategy of acquiring smaller software companies. But we wonder: How much longer can Oracle CEO Larry Ellison keep it up? Oracle recorded $5.3 billion in revenue in the second quarter of its fiscal 2008, up 28% from the $4.2 billion it made in the same quarter last year. Net income rose 35% to $1.3 billion from $967 million the year-ago quarter.
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