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

To: lml who wrote (15962)	7/5/2001 10:15:02 PM
From: Turs	Respond to of 19079

After having followed ORCL closely for the past 4 years now, combined with my understanding of past events, I have come to appreciate ORCL for what it is. It is a selling machine first and a customer service company second. Sales and marketing will always lead the R&D department. But the aggressiveness of S&M will also push R&D to produce. And Larry is someone with whom people place their faith over and over again, despite his reputation for hyperbole. So, there are times to own it (like June '99, when he promised 40% operating margins....and made it) and there are times not to, like when it's trading at 80X or when Larry sold $1B worth of stock in Q1. But you can't shun the stock altogether. As far as the article goes, I think there is more truth than fiction in there - some people and customers are cited by name, and we've seen the numbers match up with the subpar apps in a few quarters, including Q4. But ORCL is certainly not the only company that plays this game. Turs