FWIW, Mike, at this point in time, the stock price has reacted much the way I felt over the weekend. I figured the stock would immediately move down 3-4 points, with 5-6 points in the worse case scenario, depending upon more general conditions in the market.
My take on Lane's resignation is that it is anything but a surprise to ORCL. Anyone who follows ORCL, or has been invested in it for more than a year, knows very well that Lane has been wanting to leave for sometime. This issue became most evident when Lane was being considered for the top job at HP, and even CPQ, when Pfieffer got the boot.
It also became evident that Ellison successfuly convinced Lane to stay on for the transition period ORCL was about to go through, and that a success in this transition would be another testimony to Lane's leadership. Well, this has come to pass, and one cannot conclude that while Lane was doing his thing Ellison was hoping that Lane would stay on forever. Of course. Most likely, Larry E. has been preparing for Ray's departure for some time, and now with the pipeline for the coming year very strong, it was probably the best time for Ray to make the split. BTW, it wouldn't surprise me if the change in DBS sales policies was specifically implemented in conjunction with Lane's departure.
Surprise? Not to ORCL key execs. JMO. |
