Wednesday December 23, 12:28 am Eastern Time
Oracle's Ellison says future is bright
SYDNEY, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp chief executive Larry Ellison on Wednesday forecast a healthy future for the world's largest database software company, saying personal computing was being supplanted by the Internet and web-style private networks.
''Things look very good for Oracle, because of the 10 largest consumer e-commerce sites in the world, we have all 10,'' Ellison told reporters.
''We own the high end of the market.''
The growth in internet computing would also help break what Ellison described as Microsoft Corp's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) monopoly on personal computing, regardless of the outcome of the computer giant's U.S. antitrust trial.
"If you're a PC programmer in Sun Valley you can't get invitations to any of the best parties -- it's so uncool.
"You can watch the Internet shoving the personal computer off the centre stage. The Internet is becoming the centre of the universe.
''We will have a level playing field. There'll be no one country, no one company, no one person,'' he said.
He argued that internet computing offered services at 1/10th the cost of personal computing and that about half of capital spending in the United States in the coming year would be spent on information technology.
''The future of computing is Internet computing,'' Ellison said. ''This includes the worldwide web, but also every private network.''
''It's not us that's going to damage Microsoft, it's the Internet,'' he said.
Oracle announced on December 10 a 46 percent increase in net profit for the second quarter to November 30, above analysts' forecasts.
BancBoston Robertson Stephens, Credit Suisse First Boston and Gruntal & Co have all raised their earnings estimates for the Redwood Shores, California-based company.
Ellison noted that the judge presiding over Microsoft's antitrust case had said that America Online Inc's (NYSE:AOL - news) proposed acquisition of Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news) might have an immediate effect on the case.
However Ellison doubted the deal would influence the outcome of the case, describing Netscape as ''Little Nell strapped to the railway lines.''
The U.S. Justice Department and 19 states allege that Microsoft used its market power in personal computer operating systems to compete illegally against a Web browser produced by Netscape.
District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has adjourned tha case until January 4.
''I don't think Microsoft will disappear as a company,'' Ellison said. ''But I don't think it will be the centre of the industry.''
Ellison is in Australia for local talks and to sail his hi-tech maxi yacht Sayonara in the annual Sydney-Hobart yacht race down the continent's east coast starting on December 26.
Sayonara and Ellison won the race in 1995, with News Corp Ltd chairman Rupert Murdoch on board.
This year, Ellison will count among his crew Murdoch's son Lachlan, chief executive of News' Australian arm.
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