Oracle Back To Trash Talking

Say That Again

from the ah,-so-much-fun dept

There really hasn’t been all that much tech trash talk lately. During the bubble years, it was pretty common for Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy to take pot shots at Microsoft every few weeks. Or, you’d have Michael Dell trashing Apple. There was always some CEO saying something. It still happens sometimes, but it seems much quieter. Larry Ellison did threaten to shoot Craig Conway over the whole PeopleSoft merger, and new Dell CEO did call the iPod and the Walkman one hit wonders. But the general trash talking hasn’t been quite as loud lately. It looks like Oracle is trying to change that a bit — and it’s not just Ellison taking part. He sent out his current right hand man (a position that has been filled by many), Charles Phillips, to joke about SAP concerning the latest battle to buy Retek: Q: I noticed yesterday that Larry Ellison repeatedly called SAP “sap” in the conference call. A: Very perceptive. Q: Was that intentional. A: Yes. Q: Why so? A: He likes calling them “sap.” Q: I never really heard that from him before. A: You’ll hear more. It sounds better, at least from our perspective. Q: It’s diminutive. A: Right.