Cuothe IT Criticism & Curmudgeonery

Oracle Versus PeopleSoft in an Odyssey of the Diseased

November 18th, 2004 by Adam Cuothe

Lisa DiCarlo of Forbes can talk about challenges:

Executives from each company will continue to present their case to large investors this week. PeopleSoft’s challenge is to convince them that its business plan makes the company’s shares worth significantly more than $24. Oracle’s challenge is to convince them of the exact opposite

It’s not one over the other, both Oracle and PeopleSoft may be deeply diseased in their software sales business. PeopleSoft is stuck in a listless lack of surety because it can’t figure out that the standard software practice it boomed from, won’t survive. Oracle knows it too, but Oracle is more the bear caught in a trap that won’t only gnaw its own leg off, but also rears up and in act of self-preservation attacks everything that comes close to it.

I’ve long had this theory. I say that once upon a time we worshipped heroes, à la ancient Greece. The hero was the ultimate status to attain in society. One day we’d found that situation morphed into the political figure as the ultimate (be he dictator, prime minister, king, or even president). Now it is the CEO and nobody, not even Master Gates, can represent this connection the way Larry Ellison can. My friends, I wish Larry would hire me for a year. Just one year. Just to follow sir Ellison around at all times recording Ellison’s life. That’s what happened with some of those old heroes. Then I’d compose an epic on Ellison, The Ellisiad? Ouch, not that. But the time is right, we’re in for some real tragedy on a large scale and I can’t wait to record Ellison’s part in that, because certainly, it will be dramatic.

Oracle is fast trying to buy up everything in an attempt to beat down the Microsofts, IBMs, and SAPs–but that’s not gonna work for that pony. PeopleSoft thinks it can latch on to a hardware vendor or two, old-school style… nope. Both haven’t got what it takes when they try to embrace open source–and that is the real issue of their downfall. It’s deep inside, these are companies that are unlikely to adapt. Maybe they should take a lesson from Novell.

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