Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bipin Prasad who wrote (15336)	2/21/2001 8:25:46 PM
From: A.L. Reagan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19079

Computer industry getting old and boring - Oracle CEO (edit: and you thought Upin was goofy?) Reuters Company News - Wednesday, February 21, 2001 By Jeff Franks NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 21 (Reuters) - Larry Ellison, chief executive of computer software technology concern Oracle Corp. , said on Wednesday the computer industry is getting old and boring -- so much so that, in some respects, it will not change much for the next 1,000 years. Ellison also remarked that if he were a young man -- starting his life over again -- and not a middle-aged billionaire, he would go into biotechnology. "The computing industry is about to become boring," Ellison said at the Oracle Appsworld conference in New Orleans in which the company has promoted its latest applications software and its beefed-up Oracle.com website. "Computers are starting to deliver on the promises they've made for years -- they are making businesses more efficient. But over the next 10 years I think you'll see the computer industry maturing -- not technology, but the architecture," he said. "There will be no new architecture for computing certainly in the next 1,000 years," Ellison told startled conference attendees. "That doesn't mean that networks won't get faster ... but that model (now in place) will not change for 1,000 years or longer," he said. "The next great thing will be biotechnology. If I was 21, I probably wouldn't go into computing, I'd go into biotech," he said. Ellison, who made his comments in a speech and a later press conference, also affirmed that Oracle had not talked to former President Bill Clinton about joining the company's board of directors, but did not rule it out. Clinton, enmeshed in controversy over his 11th hour pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, made the conference's keynote speech on Monday, which prompted speculation his friend Ellison would bring him on board. "We never had any discussions with President Clinton about joining the board ... it never occurred to me and it never occurred to him," he said in response to a reporter's question. But when asked if he would like to have him as a director, he said: "I'm a huge fan of Bill Clinton, what more can I say." "But I think the president is quite busy right now," he joked, referring to Clinton's troubles. Ellison said he does not expect Clinton's successor, President George W. Bush, to affect the government's case against software rival Microsoft Corp. , which is appealing a federal judge's finding that it broke anti-trust laws. "I don't think President Bush will have any impact at all. This is in the courts," he said. But, he said, "We're going to keep an eye on what Microsoft is doing all the time ... Microsoft has consistently broken the law and seems to have no compunction about breaking the law," Ellison said, making a point he has made before and that Microsoft has denied. About Oracle products, Ellison said the company was focusing on selling its applications software, but also turning its efforts to Oracle.com, which it hopes to make "the Yahoo of business" by offering news, information and services for a business audience. "The next big thing for Oracle will be Oracle.com," he said.