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Tesla adds Larry Ellison to its board after SEC slapdown
Oracle co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, an EVP and global head of human resources at Walgreens Boots Alliance, have joined Tesla's board. The pair were appointed to ensure Tesla complies with a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement following allegations CEO Elon Musk misled investors over a plan to take the company private.
Larry Ellison seems to think Apple has a bleak future without Steve Jobs
In an interview that is set to air today, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison tells Charlie Rose that he believes Apple does not have a bright future without Steve Jobs. In a brief clip that has been released early, Rose asks Ellison about Apple's future. Ellison replies: "Well, we already know. We saw -- we conducted the experiment. I mean, it's been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we're gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs." To be sure, Ellison is a very smart man who runs a very successful technology company and also happened to be one of Steve Jobs' best friends. However, to suggest that Apple is going to run into the ground again like it did after Steve Jobs' ousting in the mid-1980s is a bit shortsighted. In the late 1980s, Apple absolutely suffered without Steve Jobs' leadership. But part of that suffering was also born from the horrible leadership of John Scully. Tim Cook and Jony Ive are no John Scully. Apple -- as a company and as a culture -- changed drastically after Jobs' return. Be certain that everyone remembers extremely well what happened to Apple when Jobs was forced out of the company, and is bound to make sure those mistakes do not repeat themselves. The Charlie Rose interview with Larry Ellison airs today on CBS This Morning.
America's Cup book dives into Larry Ellison-Steve Jobs friendship
The San Francisco Chronicle has been running weekly excerpts of The Billionaire and the Mechanic, and today's sample (behind the Chron's paywall) is worth a look. This recently-published nonfiction book, written by Chronicle staffer Julian Guthrie, tells the story of Oracle founder Larry Ellison's pursuit of the Americas Cup yachting prize and the unlikely allies (including car radiator mechanic Norbert Bajurin) he enlisted along the way. In this week's excerpt, Ms. Guthrie covers the long-enduring friendship between Ellison and Steve Jobs. The tech industry titans used to hike together, vacation with their families in Hawaii and sometimes just stroll Ellison's Japanese-themed gardens as they discussed the nature of greatness. (Jobs voted for Gandhi as a moral and political paragon; Ellison nominated Napoleon Bonaparte.) Among the first face-to-face encounters between Jobs and Ellison, she wrote, was an incident where the two neighbors had to sort out a peacock problem; Jobs had received a small flock of peacocks as a gift and the early-morning birdcalls were driving both men batty. Ellison (who is active in animal welfare and conservation) had a solution. Jobs should tell the bird-brained gift givers that he had to put the peacocks in a shelter for their own good; his crazy neighbor Larry was losing his mind over the noise and hinting that he was researching good ways to cook peacock. There are lots of other intriguing details in the excerpt -- including the role Ellison played in getting Jobs his Gulfstream jet after his return to Apple -- but you'll need to be a Chronicle subscriber or get your hands on the physical paper -- or the book -- to read them all. photo courtesy Oracle
Pixar president Dr. Ed Catmull, Oracle's Larry Ellison discuss Steve Jobs
Over the years, Steve Jobs was a big part of the annual D:All Things Digital conference and his presence at the recent D10 was sorely missed. In one long sit-down session, both Pixar President Dr. Ed Catmull and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison talk candidly about their interactions with Jobs and his influence on technology. In one part of the interview, Ellison focuses on Jobs's cutting personality and how that led to his removal from Apple in the early days of the company. Ellison called this removal "an incredible mistake" and said it influences how young CEOs do business today. In another clip from the interview, Catmull, who worked with Jobs at Pixar, and Ellison reflect on their 25+ years of friendship with the Apple founder. This clip is filled with insight into Job's personality and leadership skills.
Google hires Java founder James Gosling amid Oracle infringement suit - ah, snap!
And the war wages on... We've been reporting on the showdown between Oracle and Google over Java-related patent infringement since its inception, and now El Goog's throwing a little extra excitement into the fray by hiring Java founder, and former VP of Sun Microsystems, James Gosling. When Oracle acquired Sun last year, Gosling, who refused to take part, wasn't shy about expressing his views, calling Oracle's Larry Ellison "Larry, Prince of Darkness." On a post to his blog, which has since crashed, Gosling was vague about his new duties saying simply, "I don't know what I'll be working on. I expect it'll be a bit of everything, seasoned with a large dose of grumpy curmudgeon." That's just the kind of smack talking this scuffle needed to keep things interesting. Long live James Gosling!
Caption Contest: Obama has dinner with tech industry CEOs
Barack Obama is a president well known for being in touch with technology, so it's no surprise to see him wining and dining the industry's biggest decision makers. Larry Ellison, Eric Schmidt, Carol Bartz, Mark Zuckerberg, and yes, even Steve Jobs joined el presidente for an informal dinner on Thursday to discuss important things like jobs, education, and research spending. We're not here for that, though, we're here to drop zingers about one all-powerful dude and his big-time CEO buddies. Thomas: "Here's to project Soylent Green." Joe: "This sure beats the Four Loko Summit we held last summer on the White House lawn." Chris: "So let's just jam through this dinner real quick." Josh T: "I hope no one authorizes a 'kill switch' on this party." Paul: "At this very moment we're millions of miles from a doomed planet Earth!" Nilay: "Gentlemen, Ballmer has neutralized the Finnish threat." Richard Lai: "Drink up, kids -- it's Dance Central time!" Tim: "Zuck, it's like Final Club, except with the President."
HP and Oracle kiss, make up, agree that Mark's better off with Larry
Guess it wasn't "virtually impossible" for Oracle and HP to work together after all -- the two companies have settled their little tiff over disgraced former HP CEO Mark Hurd. According to the statement we just received, Oracle and HP have "reaffirmed their long-term strategic partnership" and have decided that ol' Mark can "protect HP's confidential information while fulfilling his responsibilities at Oracle." Mark will also visit HP every other weekend and attend at least 50 percent of its Little League games. Honestly, we're kind of sad this is over, since that means Larry Ellison won't have any reason to call everyone "idiots" anymore. On second thought, he'll probably figure something out. Update: Our friend Kara Swisher at All Things Digital reports that Mark's given up the $30-40m worth of stock options he got in his severance from HP. Sad... until you realize he gets to keep at least $12m in cash and work for Oracle directly competing with the company that ran him out of town. Nice.
Larry Ellison on HP's Mark Hurd lawsuit: 'virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together'
Uh, wow. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison just released a statement in response to HP suing former CEO Mark Hurd for taking a position as Oracle's co-president, and well, just read it: Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace. Yeah. Homeboy isn't playing around. Of course, HP's entire lawsuit hinges on the court agreeing that HP and Oracle are actually direct competitors in the enterprise space, and, as the lawsuit points out, Oracle itself has filed SEC reports saying its hardware and software products "compete directly" with HP and other companies, so perhaps this is all more sound than fury, but at this point we wouldn't count on a quick settlement putting all this to bed anytime soon. P.S.- We told you Larry Ellison would say something bonkers again.
HP sues former CEO Mark Hurd, doesn't want him working at Oracle
Hey, remember when HP fired former CEO Mark Hurd for fudging his expense reports in connection with some shady potential hanky-panky surrounding a former marketing contractor? And then gave him a $40-50m severance package that included $12m in straight cash to keep his mouth shut and not sue anyone? And then Oracle CEO Larry Ellison called HP's board "idiots" for firing Hurd? Well, over the weekend Larry put his money where his mouth is and hired ol' Mark as Oracle's new president, and that seems to have been the last straw for HP -- the company just announced that it's suing Mark Hurd for breach of contract and "threatened misappropriation of trade secrets." HP says that Hurd was deeply involved in creating HP's business plans for the next two years, including specific plans to compete with Oracle in the enterprise market, and that there's no way Hurd can do his job at Oracle without revealing trade secrets and other confidential information he agreed to keep under wraps when he signed his employment contract with HP. What's more, he reaffirmed those commitments when he signed his severance package, so that's a double whammy -- and although California is usually pretty hostile to noncompete agreements, HP's trying to say Hurd violated one of those, too. HP's asked the court to prevent Hurd from working for Oracle or any other competitors at all, so we're guessing this one's going to be a fight -- we'll let you know if Larry Ellison says something bonkers again anything good happens. P.S.- The WSJ piece linked in More Coverage says there's no noncompete agreement in play here, but we're reading the complaint and HP specifically references a protective covenant forbidding Hurd from working for a competitor under certain conditions -- that certainly looks like a noncompete clause to us.
Ce-Oh no he didn't!: Larry Ellison likens HP board to 'idiots' at Apple
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO and regular tennis buddy of the disgraced (and now former) chief of HP Mark Hurd, has decided to share his thoughts on the matter of Hurd's departure in an impassioned email to the New York Times: "The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them." The communique, also obtained by the Mercury News, included other tasty tidbits such as Ellison describing HP's disclosure of the apparently unfounded sexual harassment claim against Hurd as "cowardly corporate political correctness," and dismissing the financial irregularities that forced the former CEO's resignation as "petty expenses report errors." So, in short, the world according to Larry is populated by messianic CEOs who shouldn't be held up to the same petty standards as the rest of us.
Steve Jobs, the moral high ground, and the return to Apple
Adam Lashinsky's CEO of the Decade cover story at Fortune this week pointed out a fascinating "what if" in Apple history. What if Steve Jobs had tried a hostile takeover of Apple? According to the story, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his friend Steve Jobs were on a beach in Hawaii in '97 when Ellison, under the influence of a few margaritas, floated the idea of buying Apple to bring Jobs back into power at the company he had co-founded with Steve Wozniak. Jobs declined, although Ellison had funding all lined up to allow The Steve to make a hostile takeover of the company. He told Ellison that a takeover would make people think he was greedy, just wanting to make money out of Apple. Ellison later stated that "He (Jobs) explained to me that with the moral high ground, he thought he could make decisions more easily and more gracefully." Over at Gizmodo, Jesus Diaz surmises that it was more than decision-making that went into Steve's refusal to push his way back into power; it was love. As Diaz notes, "Steve wanted to be wanted. He knew he was loved by the public and the press. After all, everyone likes the story of a legend coming back-to see him succeed or, better yet for Hollywood drama, fail. More importantly, the company was his company. He didn't have to buy it! That was absolutely preposterous, he probably thought at the time. He knew he was going to return as King once again, acclaimed by his troops and his people, so why spend any money?" Since his return to Apple, Steve Jobs has, of course, brought the company from the brink of extinction into profitability and recognition. Whether or not he would have been equally successful as a result of a hostile takeover is a great plot for an alternative universe sci-fi novel, but it adds a lot to the legend of Steve Jobs to know that he was able to regain control of the company through a combination of connections, persuasion, and his love for his company. The rest is history. As Ellison stated in his Fortune interview, "The difference between me and Steve is that I'm willing to live with the best the world can provide-with Steve that's not always good enough." That difference explains why Apple continues to amaze us with their products, why Steve Jobs is so important to the company, and why Jobs was the hands-down choice for Fortune's CEO of the Decade. [via Digg & Gizmodo] Post edited to properly credit Fortune.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLIV: Ballmer calls Ellison overpaid, kettle black
As soon as the salary of a CEO reaches the $1 million a year mark, they should probably hush up about their peer's ridiculously inflated $74 million ones. Apply those numbers to Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison respectively, and now consider that Ballmer is complaining about the latter's yearly figure. According to Forbes, Ellison has consistently hit the top ten of CEO compensation list, and is unarguably the most well paid CEO of a technology company, but does that give Ballmer any right to call him out on it? We're thinking maybe Ballmer should take stock -- of which he has 9.6% of Microsoft's total by the way -- and continue to count up his $15 Billion fortune. Sure, over-compensation of CEOs is a problem, but one that probably shouldn't be outed by a well-compensated CEO that earns double-digit multiples over the average Microsoft salary.
