Render Unto Caesar...
Nah, I don't know what to make of the Oracle/PeopleSoft contretemps. But a war it is, that much I do know. This is clearly not about synergies, consolidation, value to the customer, or shareholder value.
It's a simple and straightforward effort by one of the world's leading business bushidos to slice a perceived opponent into little bits. Or, switching historical metaphors, it's an attempt by Caesar Ellisonus at a 21st-century Carthaginian Peace, one that we can imagine Rome, er, Oracle, will be only to happy to extend to other companies started by ex-Oracle guys, such as Siebel and Salesforce.com.
Someone let me know when the salt trucks arrive at PeopleSoft headquarters, so I can stay away and prevent any from getting on my car and rusting it out.
One of the key red herrings tossed out in opposition to the takeover is the software incompatibilities that will result. Oh come on, when has enterprise application software ever actually worked without massive support and upgrade fees?
If software from any single company, let alone multiple applications in mixed environments, actually worked properly, there wouldn't be much of a software business to speak of in the first place. Companies would simply make the sale, check in on customers now and then, and die once they ran out of new customers. Instead, the ongoing licensing and support fees are the only thing keeping many enterprise software companies in business. Even for the strongest, such as Oracle, existing customer applications are essential to staying in business.
Caught that we are in this metaphorical war zone, I can report a fair amount of fear and loathing spreading through the region. PeopleSoft is located in the so-called Tri-Valley region of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region in which I happen to live.
In the late 90s a mild euphoria swept the region as Oracle, Cisco, Sybase, Sun, and others touted their aggressive re-location and/or growth plans for a region that had previously counted PeopleSoft as the primary technology company lining its freeways.
Pleasanton (where PeopleSoft is headquartered), lying 30 miles northeast of San Jose on the other side of the Sunol Grade, was set to emerge as a serious contender to the proud Silicon Valley cities of Santa Clara County. Next door, "Digital Dublin" was going to make itself heard within the global technology community.
A little further up the freeway, San Ramon was primed to add major technology companies to a corporate roster that already included Pacific Bell (now part of SBC) and Chevron Texaco.
Only Sybase kept its promise, relocating from its cramped Emeryville location to striking new headquarters in Dublin, just across I-580 from PeopleSoft. The bubbleburst busted the other plans, a slight malaise set in, but there was nothing to panic about. Surely technology would come back and the Tri-Valley would recommence its march towards becoming a junior Silicon Valley.
Then came news of Oracle's pre-emptive move and Chairman Lawrence's belief that the employees of PeopleSoft were of no consequence or value. The duress experienced by thousands upon thousands of residents in this since that time is tangible.
The outlook is tense out here. Myself, I think that Ellison, portrayed as singularly narcissistic and self-absorbed in numerous books and magazine articles, has reached his indignant late 50s very indignantly, and is projecting his morbid fears of aging and death on an entire industry, and specifically, if coincidentally, on the Tri-Valley region.
This is a man who buys Russian MiGs, who sails in his own World Cup yachts. A man who can invite Rupert Murdoch onto his boat, then witness that boat have tear off some of the press baron's fingers without apparent consequence. What does he care for a few lonely thousand people here and there? Their jobs, their kids, their schools, their communities?
Most assuredly this is not a real war zone, and it's not the hapless Flint, Michigan portrayed by that big guy in the baseball cap. But the situation is much more serious than that of the stereotypical Californian being forced to cut back on lattes, cabernets, or premium gas for the Porsche. If Oracle wins this battle, thousands of these Californians will also have to cut back on mortgage payments. They will have to load up a decidedly non-Porsche truck and leave.
One must note that Ellison himself told the San Francisco Chronicle that Silicon Valley will look like Detroit in a few years, that the age of innovation and growth is over, that a brutal age of consolidation is here to stay. Here's to hoping the man couldn't be more wrong.
5:00:44 PM 
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