Does Larry Really Need Another $1.3 Billion?
It's no secret that Larry Ellison hates SAP. He used to hate Microsoft, and probably still does, but after Oracle bought its way into the ERP space, SAP became the bigger target. Both companies are massive and healthy so one could call this a draw.
One place where Oracle clearly won is in the courtroom. It recently nabbed a sweet $1.3 billion after proving that an SAP subsidiary stole confidential information.
One could argue that the SAP top dogs didn't know what was going on. That's because a small company SAP bought five years ago is the one that tried to steal customers by downloading confidential Oracle files.
SAP copped to the wrongdoing, but thought the bad was only worth $40 million or so. Sounds like the judge tossed in the extra $1,260,000 as corporate punishment. SAP, last I checked, planned to appeal, but it appears the best they can do is to get the award reduced.
Which do you like better, Oracle, SAP or Microsoft? Answers always welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2010 at 1:18 PM