Ellison foretells Internet fortune
By Kristen Gerencher,
CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:25 AM ET Mar 11, 1999
NewsWatch
Oracle Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison, dressed in a
dark suit and occasionally sipping what appeared to be red wine, told a
crowd gathered at the University of California at Berkelely Wednesday
night that the era of personal computing is about to be eclipsed by the
growth of the Internet.
The reasons, Ellison said, are the Internet's low cost, accessibility and
yet-to-be-designed features, such as e-commerce and
business-to-business brands.
"Strangely, the consumer movement has taken
place before the business-to-business movement,"
Ellison said, citing such consumer-focused giants as
Yahoo! and Amazon.com.
Ellison's comments came in a conversation with
Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley's graduate
school of journalism. The event was part of the
Herb Caen/San Francisco Chronicle lecture series.
Oracle (ORCL) will report fiscal third-quarter
earnings Thursday. Analysts expect the database
titan to earn 19 cents a share, up from 15 cents in
the same quarter last year. Shares closed down
13/16 to 37 15/16 Wednesday. See Software
Report.
Noting that Oracle is the nation's second-largest
software company, Ellison also took a swipe at
competitor Microsoft.
"Oracle has the chance to do the unthinkable, to dethrone Microsoft. I
think that's possible," he said.
Referring to the Microsoft antitrust trial, Ellison accused Microsoft of
trying to slow innovation and of trying to drive Netscape out of business.
"I think Netscape is one of the most innovative companies in Silicon
Valley in the last decade," he said.
Ellison identified education as one of the key areas for Internet expansion.
"I predict Cal will have more students outside Berkeley than inside," he
said. "There's an incredible demand and not much supply for education in
Asia... So when I say the Internet is going to change the world, I mean the
Internet is going to change the world." |
