To: vinod Khurana who wrote (4405 ) 12/11/1997 6:57:00 PM From: Maverick Respond to of 19080
Suite of new products could increase revenue. (12/10/97; 5:00 p.m. EST) By Larry Dignan, TechInvestor NEW YORK -- Oracle chief executive officer Larry Ellison was short on answers regarding his company's future earnings prospects, but long on one-liners Wednesday. Ellison, who gave the afternoon keynote speech at New York's Internet World under the glare of camera flashes, spoke before a packed house, but said little to soothe investors. "It's fortunate we're talking about the network computer," he said. "If you lost a lot in the market like I did, you can save a fortune with network computing." Ellison, who lost more than $2 billion in Tuesday's slide, quipped his way through the first few minutes of his familiar network computing speech, handed the presentation off to two of his troops, and left via a door to the right of that stage before the lights went up. Ellison did not attend a news conference following the keynote, but left it up to Oracle's senior executives to try to shed some light on the Redwood Shores, Calif., company's disappointing earnings. Karen White, senior vice president of worldwide marketing and business development for Oracle, said the fundamentals driving the company were still strong, and any problems in the quarterly results can be fixed. The recent quarter could be attributed to "growing pains," she said. White added that the extent of Asia's problems and an internal reorganization cut into the second quarter results. She also defended Oracle's network computing strategy, which some Wall Street analysts have said is keeping the company from focusing on its core applications business.