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Tech

Oracle CEO Calls Ex-HP Leader Leo Apotheker a Criminal

By Laptopmag.com
Published | Updated
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Oracle CEO let loose here at D10, calling ex-HP CEO Leo Apotheker a criminal, saying he stole his company's software while he was at SAP. And he also poked fun at his short tenure at HP, when the company publicly contemplated exiting the PC business and then decided not to.

Ellison also refused to pronounce Leo's name correctly when reminded by interviewer Kara Swisher. He said I'll call him "Lee-o" instead of "Lay-o". (He got really fired up.) The CEO wanted to remind the audience that HP sent Apotheker out of the country when he was subpoenaed. However, Ellison wished new HP CEO Meg Whitman luck in her role.Larry Ellison also discussed what's next for cloud computing at D10, saying that it's all about social marketing. It's why the long-time Oracle CEO just spent $300 million to acquire Virtue, a social marketing platform.

"We can now not only track what you're buying but what you're saying to your friends about those products," Ellison said. We can take corrective action if we need to."

Ellison says that "consumers are now instrumented" and that traditional market research is no longer needed because of how much consumers are freely sharing online. Now shoppers "tell us everything about themselves. Every time you tweet, join a special interest group on Facebook, every time you search. It allows companies to monitor, market and service customers," said Ellison.

Oracle's CEO also doesn't buy that cloud computing is a new phenomenon. To him, it merely represents a "continuous evolution of the Internet" and branding. The long-time Oracle CEO says that services like NetSuite and Salesforce.com predated many services that are getting buzz now like iCloud and Google Docs.

Ellison shared that will soon launch a comprehensive Oracle Cloud service, combining ERP and CRM in a single platform. This platform as a service will go head to head with Amazon.

Ellison is also a big believer that PCs are giving way to tablets and smartphones. In other words, we've moved from a network of complex devices to a networks of simple devices. And the cloud is making that happen. "We've migrating the complexity off the PC and onto Internet servers."