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

To: Hardly B. Solipsist who wrote (10869)	5/29/1999 3:48:00 PM
From: wbASSETt	Respond to of 19079

ORCL from my broker DLJ Nice approach !?!? Industry tries to create e-biz buzz like IBM's - For years now, IBM has been telling its story for all who would listen: The one-time mainframe computer giant is now the Internet-friendliest company on the planet. With an advertising budget worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, it was promising to put people in the "e-business" driver's seat even before it was clear where the Internet might take them. Now, after mostly ignoring button-down Big Blue's transformation into the "Web geek" of the high-tech industry, some of IBM's fiercest competitors are deciding it's time to get down with the Yahoos and the Excites of the wired world. In just the past three months, Advertising Age estimates, some $500 million in new high-tech ads have been planned. Two of IBM's most direct competitors, Oracle Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., have launched marketing initiatives this month to boost the perception that they, too, are major "e-business" players. A recent boardroom coup at No. 1 PC maker Compaq Computer Corp. was blamed largely on the "e-factor" as well. The company cited the lack of a viable Internet strategy in the ouster of chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer. More than just advertising, it's the entire strategic direction of the high-tech industry that's shifted. Microsoft and Intel, the long-time high-tech leaders, had much-publicized Internet conversions in recent years, but International Business Machines Corp. was sounding that alarm long ago -- and now it's getting its payoff. "IBM is setting the agenda in the computer business for the first time in years -- taking back some of that role from Microsoft and Intel," said David Card of Jupiter Communications Corp. "They are creating the terminology of e-business and becoming synonymous with all the things business can do electronically." That, in part, is linked to constant flow of advertising sent out in recent years by IBM and its publicity-minded chief executive, Louis Gerstner. One of the first things Gerstner did after taking over a troubled IBM in 1993 was to come up with a more focused advertising strategy. After once using dozens of ad agencies, IBM consolidated its ad work with one agency, WPP Group Plc <WPP.L>'s Ogilvy & Mather in 1995. IBM focused the marketing message "so they had one agency and one advertising theme across multiple media and products," said Jupiter's Card. They also innovated in the use of consumer channels to reach business people. "The e-business campaign from IBM has been terrific," concedes Oracle marketing vice president,Mark Jarvis. "They have successfully created a category that the industry has been able to deliver on." Advertising alone doesn't make the technology business stand up and take notice, said Regis McKenna, the famed Silicon Valley strategist and public relations expert. "The high-tech business likes winners -- and IBM is a winner," he said. Because the industry moves so fast, it craves stability and leadership, McKenna says, and a slip in profitability can translate "directly to market share loss." In practical terms, tech companies gravitate to winners because they want products that connect to the most-used operating systems. While they may not like the bigfoot roles played by Microsoft and Intel, they need to follow the industry standards set by the leaders. IBM, increasingly, is playing that role in e-business. While the "WinTel" desktop alliance is now two decades old, the Internet is still in its infancy, and the scramble is still on to capture attention in the growing business. Rivals, however, say IBM's wins have been in the realm of perception. "IBM created a whole new category with the e-business campaign," said Oracle's vice president for marketing, Mark Jarvis. "But we've been the biggest winners -- we took the revenues." Oracle, which recently fired its a... .