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: lml who wrote (10311)	4/3/1999 7:58:00 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Respond to of 19080

Oracle article: moneycentral.msn.com

To: lml who wrote (10311)	4/4/1999 12:57:00 AM
From: hasbeen101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

I totally agree that the hi-tech sector is very dynamic. That creates the opportunities and the risks for Oracle. The company depends a lot on leveraging its past successes into emerging areas such as the internet, network computing, ERO, etc. One an at least say the the current management have pulled off amazing feats in the past, so if anyone can do it, they probably can. FWIW I have been a strong believer in the emergence of OO databases, but Object Design, the leader in this niche, just pre-announced a loss of 7 cents per share and revenues that were flat over the same quarter 12 months ago. If you asked me two weeks ago whether Object Design was growing faster than Oracle I would have said yes. Now I would say no. Perhaps "Don't know" would be a better answer in both cases.

To: lml who wrote (10311)	4/5/1999 5:20:00 PM
From: paul	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 19080

"ORCL, is a company that has proven in the past its ability to see new trends & alter the direction, strategy of its business. Of course, when this takes place one is going to see some falloff in historical growth. But to conclude that its best days are over is unsupported by the nature of high technology & the track record of the company -- over the longer term." Ive been a fan of Oracle's for a long time but think that its record in adopting and being succesful in new technology areas is unsatisfactory at best. Relational database technology is now 25 years old and Oracle still goes to bat with the same old story except they now append the letter i after Oracle8. Don't get me wrong Oracle is the 900 pound gorilla in its field but going into Y2k and beyond with the same product portfolio and strategy is troubling. Now exactly how robust the market is for database technology is a good question and Oracle has a huge customer base it can mine for years to come - however it has missed the applications boom in which it will forever be trying to play catch up, as well as fast growing areas such as SFA, Front office, Application Server, Groupware, desktop (Network computer), productivity - Oracle has had products in each of these areas so it isnt for lack of trying - but theyve all been duds. Part of this problem is that its been so succesful selling one thing - databases and its hard to wean the sales force from it, that was a big problem when SAP started coming up in the early and mid 90's and its still a big problem now. I think Oracle is a good investment as a database company but for it to sport a higher multiple its got to get into some other growth areas it just doesnt have. If you live in SV i think you can see that in the way people feel about Oracle. Years ago every hotshot wanted to work there - now at best theirs an indifference if not hostility due to the fact that Oracle has never been known as a very pleasant place to work.