Leroy, Oracle, etc

Sat Jul 12 17:51:30 PDT 2003

Nick Christenson wrote:

>I find this one much more problematic.
>
I surmise it may have been more problematic for the author.

(By the way, I would hardly expect everyone to agree with everything 
that I said; by stating a perspective, I would hope to elicit, from 
others, their perspectives, and thus proceed to a rational conclusion by 
means of a discourse between equals, with, hopefully, everyone leaving 
the meeting of minds with as much as they can absorb, of an educational 
nature, from the experience.)

>This has all the hallmarks of an urban legend.
>
The post seems to contain a lot of detail, and many supporting URLs.

Here's what I found, just Googling:

"Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, is one of the leading proponents of a 
national ID card system. Oracle, the world's largest database vendor, 
owes its very existence to a Central Intelligence Agency contract 
awarded it in the 1970s. In September 2001, Ellison told San Francisco 
television station KPIX, "We need a national ID card with our photograph 
and thumbprint digitized and embedded in the ID card." Ellison even 
agreed to provide the U.S. government the software to run such a system 
free of charge. However, Ellison's offer is less altruistic than it 
appears. If the U.S. government bases a national ID system on his 
database product, every hardware and software vendor who would interface 
with the system would be required to license his software, which would 
become a de facto industry standard. Ellison stands to make billions of 
dollars if such a system is adopted."

(http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02march/march02corp3.html)

>Well, if it's true, I'm glad it is public.
>
I think there's a lot of rot in Silicon Valley; don't kid yourself. Rot 
and perception management go hand in hand. One can't paint over a rotten 
step and expect it to go unnoticed, for example.

Under instructions from my immediate management, I was emptying a room 
at a dot-com whom shall remain nameless, and placing the contents in a 
dumpster, preparatory to our moving into a smaller space. I had already 
harvested a t-shirt or two; a hat or two; a few buttons. I was surprised 
to find the following book:

    Duties and Responsibilities of Directors and Officers
            Professor Robert Baxt

It has chapters addressing one's duties to act honestly and to avoid 
conflicts of interest, as well as duties to act with care and due 
diligence. It was a year or so out of date. And it was published by the 
Australian Institute of Company Directors. Apparently the closest source 
of these sorts of educational materials was, say, 8,000 miles away.

>I think folks can have fair differences
>on whether Oracle has been "aggressive" or "unethical" or somewhere 
>in between in its business practices, but I'd like to see the truth 
>win out.
>
In order for this to occur one must give both groups equal time. If the 
events, as described in the posting, are accurate, then it would be fair 
to say that Oracle has no interest in seeing the truth win out.

(For instance, did you notice the bit about the Oracle Legal Department 
legal professional who sued Oracle because, she alleged, they had 
required her to do something unethical ... whose lawsuit was sealed 
against public scrutiny? I happen to personally know that is true, and 
can personally support the authenticity of that story.)

>This includes the PeopleSoft bid.  It's certainly aggressive, arguably it's unethical. I can believe that the point of it is as much to disrupt PeopleSoft as it is to acquire the assets of the company. Oracle is certainly not above such things.
>
'Nuff sed. But business is war, according to Leroy, and there are no 
neutral parties.

By the way, the description, by another person, of how Cisco's sales 
force aggressively started calling not just him but everyone around him, 
calling into question his judgement for wanting to evaluate other 
vendors' products, is eerily similar to the tactics described in the 
posting (which I assume you have not yet read). I see no reason to 
assume that this phenomenon, if true, has confined itself to a single 
company.

>No, it hasn't disappeared.
>
The parties concerned have been silent.

There has been a lot of commentary from newscasters whom have to fill 
their time with something; they repeat whatever has happened recently 
until something bigger happens, and make 'analyses' in the meantime, 
marking time until the next new development occurs. That's not news.

>>Yours for a workplace free of coercion, fraud, and racism ...
>>    
>>
>
>These are laudable goals.  Any interest in adding "hyperbole" to this
>list?
>

Maybe. I'm not sure I've exaggerated anything; I've reported on the 
existence of a story whose truth (or lack thereof) is of interest to 
everyone in Silicon Valley, especially those holding Oracle stock.

-- richard

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