Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation, is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products — particularly database management systems. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, United States and employing 105,000 people worldwide as of 1 July 2010, it has enlarged its share of the software market through organic growth and through a number of high-profile acquisitions. By 2007 Oracle had the third-largest software revenue, after Microsoft and IBM.

The corporation has arguably become best-known for its flagship product, the Oracle Database. The company also builds tools for database development and systems of middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software.

Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle Corporation, has served as Oracle's CEO throughout its history. He also served as the Chairman of the Board until his replacement by Jeffrey O. Henley in 2004. On August 22, 2008 the Associated Press ranked Ellison as the top-paid chief executive in the world.

Overall timeline

June 16, 1977: Software Development Laboratories (SDL) is incorporated in Santa Clara, California by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.

1978: Oracle Version 1, written in assembly language, runs on PDP-11 under RSX, in 128K of memory. Implementation separates Oracle code and user code. Oracle V1 is never officially released. The name Oracle comes from the code name of a CIA project which the founders had all worked on while at the Ampex Corporation.

June 1979: SDL is renamed to Relational Software Inc. (RSI) and relocated to Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California. Oracle 2, the first version of the Oracle database software, as purchased by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, runs on PDP-11 hardware. The company decides to name the first version of its flagship product "version 2" rather than "version 1" because it believes customers might hesitate to buy the initial release of its product.

October 1979: RSI actively promotes Oracle on the VAX platform (the software runs on the VAX in PDP-11 emulator mode).

1981: Umang Gupta joins RSI, where he writes the first business plan for the company and serves as Vice President and General Manager.

February 1981: RSI begins developing tools for the Oracle Database, including the Interactive Application Facility (IAF), a predecessor to Oracle*Forms.

1982: RSI renames itself Oracle Systems Corporation in order to align itself more closely with its primary product.

March 1983: Oracle Database is rewritten in C for portability and Oracle version 3 is released.

April 1984: Oracle receives additional funding from Sequoia Capital.

October 1984: Oracle version 4 is released, introducing read consistency.

November 1984: Oracle database software is ported to the PC platform. The MS-DOS version (4.1.4) of Oracle runs in only 512K of memory. (Oracle for MSDOS version 5, released in 1986, runs in Protected Mode on 286 machines using a technique invented by Mike Roberts, among the first products to do so.)

April 1985: Oracle version 5 is released — one of the first RDBMSs to operate in client-server mode.

1986: Oracle version 5.1 is released with support for distributed queries. Investigations into clustering begin.

March 12, 1986: Oracle goes public with revenues of $55 million USD.

August 1987: Oracle founds its Applications division, building business-management software closely integrated with its database software. Oracle acquires TCI for its project management software.

1988: Oracle version 6 is released with support for row-level locking and hot backups. The developers embedded the PL/SQL procedural language engine into the database but made no provision to store program blocks such as procedures and triggers in the database - this capability came in version 7. Users could submit PL/SQL blocks for immediate execution in the server from an environment such as SQL*Plus, or via SQL statements embedded in a host program. Oracle included separate PL/SQL engines in various client tools (such as SQL*Forms and Reports).

1989: Oracle moves its world headquarters to Redwood Shores, California. Revenues reach US$584 million.

1990: In the third quarter, Oracle reports its first ever loss[citation needed]; it lays off hundreds of employees. Ellison hires Michael S. Fields as President of Oracle U.S.A., Jeffrey O. Henley as CFO and Raymond Lane as COO.

June 1992: Oracle 7 is released with performance enhancements, administrative utilities, application-development tools, security features, the ability to persist PL/SQL program units in the database as stored procedures and triggers, and support for declarative referential integrity.

1993: Oracle releases its "Cooperative Development Environment" (CDE), which bundles Oracle Forms, Reports, Graphics, and Book.

1994: Oracle acquires the database-product DEC Rdb (subsequently called Oracle Rdb) from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Oracle Rdb operates only on the OpenVMS platform (also a former product of DEC).

June 1, 1995: Oracle Systems Corporation announces the merger of Oracle Corporation into Oracle Systems Corporation. This transaction eliminates the holding company structure and streamlines the operating company, Oracle Corporation, with the public holding company, Oracle Systems Corporation. As part of the merger, Oracle Systems Corporation is renamed Oracle Corporation and is the surviving entity incorporated as a Delaware corporation.

June 21, 1995: Oracle Corporation announces new data-warehousing facilities, including parallel queries.

November 1995: Oracle becomes one of the first large software companies to announce an Internet strategy when Ellison introduces the Network Computer concept at an IDC conference in Paris.

April 1997: Oracle releases the first version of Discoverer.

June 1997: Oracle 8 is released with SQL object technology, Internet technology and support for terabytes of data.

September 1997: Oracle Corporation announces a commitment to the Java platform, and introduces Oracle's Java integrated development environment, subsequently called Oracle JDeveloper.

January 1998: Oracle releases Oracle Applications 10.7 Network Computing Architecture (NCA). All the applications in the business software now run across the web in a standard web browser.

May 1998: Oracle Corporation releases Oracle Applications 11.

April 1998: Oracle announces that it will integrate a Java Virtual Machine with Oracle Database.

September 1998: Oracle 8i is released (the i stands for Internet).

October 1998: Oracle 8 and Oracle Application Server 4.0 are released on the Linux platform.

May 1999: Oracle releases JDeveloper 2.0, showcasing Business Components for Java (BC4J), a set of libraries and development tools for building database-aware applications.

2000: OracleMobile subsidiary is founded. Oracle 9i and Application Server is released. In May, Oracle announces the Internet File System (iFS), later re-branded as Oracle Content Management SDK.

2001: Ellison announces that Oracle saved $1 billion by implementing and using its own business applications.

2004: Oracle 10g is released (the g stands for Grid).

December 13, 2004: After a long battle over the control of PeopleSoft, Oracle announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire PeopleSoft for $26.50 per share (approximately $10.3 billion).

January 14, 2005: Oracle Corporation announces that it will reduce its combined workforce to 50,000, a reduction of approximately 5,000 following the take-over of PeopleSoft.

September 2005: Oracle Corporation announces that it has agreed to acquire the private company Global Logistics Technologies, Inc., a global provider of logistics and transportation management software (TMS) solutions, through a cash offer.

September 12, 2005: Oracle Corporation announces its purchase of Siebel Systems, a producer of CRM technologies and a provider of business intelligence software, for $5.8 billion.

October 18, 2005: A serious security vulnerability in Oracle database password management is published by Joshua Wright of the Sans Institute and Carlos Cid of the University of London. Oracle Corporation replies that existing safeguards and following good industry practices were sufficient defenses. Oracle didn't close the underlying security hole until its release of the 11g DBMS in 2007.

April 12, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces its acquisition of Portal Software, Inc. (OTC BB: PRSF.PK), a global provider of billing- and revenue-management solutions for the communications and media industry, at $4.90 per share, or approximately $220 million.

October 25, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces Unbreakable Linux.

November 2, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces that it has agreed to acquire Stellent, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEL), a global provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions, through a cash tender offer for $13.50 per share, or approximately $440 million.

December 15, 2006: A majority of MetaSolv stockholders approves Oracle's acquisition of MetaSolv Software, a provider of operations support systems (OSS) software for the communications industry.

2007: Oracle 11g is released.

March 1, 2007: Oracle announces an agreement to buy Hyperion Solutions Corporation (Nasdaq: HYSL), a global provider of performance-management software solutions, through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or approximately $3.3 billion. The acquisition officially took place on July 1, 2007.

March 22, 2007: Oracle files a court case against a major competitor, SAP AG, in the Californian courts for malpractice and unfair competition.

October 16, 2007: Oracle confirms the impending departure of John Wookey, senior vice president for application development and head of its applications strategy, raising questions concerning the planned release and future of Oracle's Fusion Applications strategy.

January 16, 2008: Oracle announces it will buy BEA Systems for $19.375 per share in cash for a total of "$7.2 billion net of cash.

September 24, 2008: Oracle announces it will market servers and storage in a co-developed and co-branded data warehouse appliance named the HP Oracle Database Machine.

January 27, 2010: Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems.

March 17, 2010: Oracle launches Enterprise Manager Ops Center, a platform for managing physical and virtual Sun environments.

April 16, 2010: Oracle agrees to acquire Phase Forward for approximately $685 million.

July 5, 2010: Mexico Development Center begins to operate with offices in Guadalajara, Jalisco, known as the Mexican Sillicon Valley.

July 29, 2010: Oracle is indicted for fraud by the US Department of Justice.

November 23, 2010: Oracle wins $1.3 billion law suit against SAP - the largest software piracy judgment in history. While acknowledging the wrongdoings of its unit TomorrowNow, which was accused of massive illegal downloads of Oracle software, SAP seeks reduction of the jury award.

March 24, 2011: Oracle announced fiscal 2011 Q3 GAAP total revenues were up 37% to $8.8 billion, while non-GAAP total revenues were up 36% to $8.8 billion.

June 15,2011: Oracle starts operations at Thiruvananthapuram,India

Technology timeline

1979: offers the first commercial SQL RDBMS

1983: offers a VAX-mode database

1984: offers the first database with read-consistency

1986: offers a client-server DBMS

1987: introduces UNIX-based Oracle applications

1988: introduces PL/SQL

1992: offers full applications implementation methodology

1995: offers the first 64-bit RDBMS

1996: moves towards an open standards-based, web-enabled architecture

1999: offers its first DBMS with XML support

2001: becomes the first to complete 3 terabyte TPC-H world record

2002: offers the first database to pass 15 industry standard security evaluations

2003: introduces what it calls "Enterprise Grid Computing" with Oracle10g

2005: releases its first free database, Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE)

2008: smart scans in software improve query-response in HP Oracle Database Machine / Exadata storage

Corporate acquisitions

Company Offer Date Industry Valuation

millions USD

Rdb Division of Digital Equipment Corporation October 1994 Relational database N/A

IRI Software August 1995 OLAP products $100

Thinking Machines Corporation June 1999 Darwin, datamining technology N/A

TopLink January 2002 Object-relation mapping technology N/A

Indicast January 2002 Voice portals N/A

NetForce January 2002 Adverse event reporting system N/A

Steltor June 2002 Enterprise calendaring system N/A

Reliaty June 2003 Enterprise data protection N/A

SiteWorks Solutions January 2004 Clinical trials management N/A

Phaos May 2004 Identity management N/A

Collaxa June 2004 Business process management N/A

PeopleSoft January 2005 Enterprise software $10,300

Oblix March 2005 Identity management N/A

Retek April 2005 Retail-industry solutions $630

TripleHop June 2005 Context-sensitive enterprise search N/A

TimesTen June 2005 Real-time enterprise solutions N/A

ProfitLogic July 2005 Retail-industry solutions N/A

Context Media July 2005 Enterprise content-integration N/A

i-flex (Oracle Financial Services) August 2005 Banking industry solutions $900

G-Log September 2005 Transportation management solutions N/A

Innobase October 2005 Discrete transactional open-source database technology N/A

Thor Technologies November 2005 Enterprise-wide user provisioning solutions. N/A

OctetString November 2005 Virtual directory solutions N/A

Temposoft December 2005 Workforce-management applications N/A

360Commerce January 2006 Retail-industry solutions N/A

Siebel Systems January 2006 Customer relationship management $5,850

Sleepycat Software February 2006 Open-source database software for embedded applications N/A

HotSip February 2006 Communications infrastructure solutions N/A

Portal Software April 2006 Communications-industry software suite $220

Net4Call April 2006 Communications-industry service-delivery platform N/A

Demantra June 2006 Demand-driven planning solutions N/A

Telephony@Work June 2006 IP-based contact-center technology N/A

Sigma Dynamics August 2006 Real-time predictive analytics software N/A

Sunopsis October 2006 Enterprise-integration software N/A

MetaSolv Software October 2006 Communications-service provider solutions $219

Stellent November 2006 Content-management solutions $440

SPL WorldGroup November 3, 2006 Revenue- and operations-management software N/A

Hyperion Solutions March 1, 2007 Enterprise-performance management $3,300

AppForge

(intellectual assets only) April 2007 Cross-platform handheld development N/A

Agile Software Corporation May 15, 2007 Product life-cycle-management software $495

Bharosa July 18, 2007 Identify theft $495

NetSure Telecom Ltd. September 2, 2007 Network intelligence and optimization software Undisclosed

Active Reasoning, Inc. September 2, 2007 IT Compliance software Undisclosed

Bridgestream September 5, 2007 Enterprise role-management N/A

LogicalApps October 9, 2007 Compliance software N/A

Moniforce December 6, 2007 End-user experience management software N/A

BEA Systems January 16, 2008 Middleware software company $8,500

Captovation January 16, 2008 Document-capture software N/A

Empirix (Web) March 27, 2008 Web-application testing-software N/A

LODESTAR Corporation April 24, 2007 Utility software solutions N/A

AdminServer May 13, 2008 Insurance-policy administration software N/A

Skywire Software June 23, 2008 Insurance software N/A

Global Knowledge Software July 31, 2008 Technical writing/training authoring software N/A

ClearApp September 2, 2008 Application-management solutions for composite applications-software N/A

Primavera Systems October 9, 2008 Project portfolio management software N/A

Advanced Visual Technology October 9, 2008 Retail-space management software $4

Haley Limited October 29, 2008 Policy-modeling and -automation software N/A

mValent February 4, 2009 Application configuration management software N/A

Relsys March 23, 2009 Drug safety and risk management solutions with advanced analytics for the health sciences industry N/A

Virtual Iron Software May 13, 2009 Server-virtualization management software N/A

Conformia Software

(intellectual assets only) June 17, 2009 Product and process lifecycle management (PPLM) software N/A

GoldenGate Software July 23, 2009 Real-time data integration and high-availability solutions N/A

Sun Microsystems

Main article: Sun acquisition by Oracle

August 20, 2009 Computers, computer components, computer software, development environment and information technology services $7,400

HyperRoll September 29, 2009 Warehousing-oriented data processing (e.g. aggregations), acceleration software using patented statistical and stochastic algorithms N/A

Sophoi October 12, 2009 Intellectual property management for Media & Entertainment Industry N/A

Silver Creek [disambiguation needed] January 4, 2010 Data-quality systems connecting enterprise systems, customers, suppliers and partners N/A

AmberPoint February 10, 2010 Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) management. N/A

Convergin February 10, 2010 Communications services brokerage $85

Phase Forward April 16, 2010 Applications for life sciences companies and healthcare providers $685

Secerno May 20, 2010 Data protection hardware and software N/A

Passlogix October 5, 2010 Enterprise single sign-on N/A

Art Technology Group (ATG), Inc. November 2, 2010 eCommerce software and related on demand commerce optimization applications $1,000

Products and services

Technology products

Various databases

In 2004 Oracle Corporation shipped release 10g (g standing for "grid") as the then latest version of Oracle Database. (Oracle Application Server 10g using Java EE integrates with the server part of that version of the database, making it possible to deploy web-technology applications. The application server comprises the first middle-tier software designed for grid computing. The interrelationship between Oracle 10g and Java has enabled the company to allow developers to set up stored procedures written in the Java language, as well as those written in the traditional Oracle database programming language, PL/SQL.)

Release 11g became the current Oracle Database version in 2007.

Berkeley DB offers embedded database processing.

Oracle Rdb, a relational database system, runs on OpenVMS platforms. Oracle acquired Rdb in 1994 from Digital Equipment Corporation. Oracle has since made many enhancements to this product and development continues today.

TimesTen features in-memory database operations.

Oracle Essbase continues the Hyperion Essbase tradition of multi-dimensional database management.

MySQL, a relational database management system licensed under the GNU General Public License, initially developed by MySQL AB.

Oracle Fusion Middleware

Some database administrators (DBAs) use Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) to manage the DBMS. With Oracle Database version 10g, Oracle Corporation introduced a web-based rewrite of OEM called Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control. Oracle Corporation has dubbed the super Enterprise Manager used to manage a grid of multiple DBMS and Application Servers as Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control.

Oracle Secure Enterprise Search

Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES), Oracle's enterprise-search offering, gives users the ability to search for content across multiple locations, including websites, file servers, content management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, business intelligence systems, and databases.

Oracle Beehive

Released in 2008, the Oracle Beehive collaboration software provides team workspaces (including wikis, team calendaring and file sharing), email, calendar, instant messaging, and conferencing on a single platform. Customers can use Beehive as licensed software or as software as a service.

Oracle Collaboration Suite

Oracle Collaboration Suite (OCS) contains messaging, groupware and collaboration applications. Oracle Beehive has superseded OCS.

Development software

Oracle Corporation's tools for developing applications include (amongst others):

Oracle Designer

Oracle Developer - which consists of Oracle Forms, Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Reports

Oracle JDeveloper

NetBeans

Oracle Application Express - also known as APEX

Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle SQL*Plus Worksheet

OEPE, Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse.

Many external and third-party tools make the Oracle database administrator's tasks easier.

Hardware

The Sun hardware range acquired by Oracle Corporation's purchase of Sun Microsystems

Exadata (hardware/software integrated storage)

Exalogic

Application products

Besides databases, Oracle also sells a suite of business applications. The Oracle E-Business Suite includes software to perform financial- (Oracle Financials), manufacturing-, enterprise resource planning and HR- (Human Resource Management Systems) -related functions (Oracle HR). Users can access these facilities through a browser interface over the Internet or via a corporate intranet.

Following a number of high-value acquisitions beginning in 2003, especially in the area of applications, Oracle Corporation currently maintains a number of product lines:

Oracle E-Business Suite

Main article: Oracle E-Business Suite

PeopleSoft Enterprise

Main article: PeopleSoft

Siebel

Main article: Siebel Systems

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Main article: JD Edwards

JD Edwards World

Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (using Oracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example, Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports). Oracle Corporation has started a drive toward "wizard"-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.

Third-party applications

Oracle Corporation works with "Oracle Certified Partners" to enhance its overall product-range.

The variety of applications from third-party vendors includes database applications for archiving, splitting and control, ERP and CRM systems, as well as more niche and focused products providing a range of commercial functions in the areas of human resources, financial control and governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC).

Vendors include:

Aquire

Hewlett-Packard

HighJump Software

Human Concepts

Q Software Global Ltd, security and compliance solutions developer

Solix Technologies

UC4 Software

Services

Oracle Academy (training in computing and commerce in partnership with educational institutions)

Oracle Consulting

Oracle University (training in Oracle products)

Oracle Certification Program

Oracle On Demand (a SaaS offering)

Oracle Support

Product support: Oracle Corporation identifies its customers and their support entitlements using CSI (Customer Support Identifier) codes. Registered customers can submit Service Requests (SRs) — usually via the web-accessible MetaLink interface or (as from September 2008) from its super-set: My Oracle Support.

Critical Patch Updates: since 2005, Oracle Corporation has grouped collections of patches and security fixes for its products each quarter into a "Critical Patch Update" (CPU), released each January, April, July and October.

Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM, previously Customer Configuration repository or CCR) gathers and uploads details of the configuration of Oracle software.

Oracle Auto Service Request (ASR) automatically creates Service Requests for specific hardware faults on qualified Oracle server, storage, Oracle Exadata, and Oracle Exalogic products.

Oracle Financing

Marketing

Sales practices

In 1990 Oracle laid off 10% (about 400 people) of its work force because of accounting errors. This crisis came about because of Oracle's "up-front" marketing strategy, in which sales people urged potential customers to buy the largest possible amount of software all at once. The sales people then booked the value of future license sales in the current quarter, thereby increasing their bonuses. This became a problem when the future sales subsequently failed to materialize. Oracle eventually had to restate its earnings twice, and also settled (out of court) class-action lawsuits arising from its having overstated its earnings. Ellison stated in 1992 that Oracle had made "an incredible business mistake.

Competition

Although IBM dominated the mainframe relational-database market with its DB2 and SQL/DS database products, it delayed[when?]entering the market for a relational database on UNIX and Windows operating systems. This left the door open for Sybase, Oracle, and Informix (and eventually Microsoft) to dominate mid-range and microcomputers.

Around this time[when?], Oracle technology started to lag technically behind that of Sybase.[citation needed] In 1990–1993 Sybase became the fastest-growing database company and the database industry's darling vendor, but soon fell victim to its merger mania and to technical issues with System X. Sybase's 1993 merger with PowerSoft resulted in its losing its focus on its core database technology. In 1993, Sybase sold the rights to its database software running under the Windows operating system to Microsoft Corporation, which now markets it under the name "SQL Server."

In 1994, Informix Software overtook Sybase and became Oracle's most important rival. The intense war between Informix CEO Phil White and Ellison made front-page news in Silicon Valley for three years. Informix claimed that Oracle had hired away Informix engineers to disclose important trade secrets about an upcoming product. Informix finally dropped its lawsuit against Oracle in 1997. In November 2005 a book detailing the war between Oracle and Informix appeared, providing a detailed chronology of the battle of Informix against Oracle, and how Informix Software's CEO Phil White landed in jail because of his obsession with overtaking Ellison.

Once it had overcome Informix and Sybase, Oracle Corporation enjoyed years of dominance in the database market until use of Microsoft SQL Server became widespread in the late 1990s and IBM acquired Informix Software in 2000 (to complement its DB2 database). Today Oracle competes for new database licenses on UNIX, Linux, and Windows operating systems primarily against IBM's DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server (which only runs on Windows). IBM's DB2 still dominates the mainframe database market.

In 2004 Oracle's sales grew at a rate of 14.5% to $6.2 billion, giving it 41.3% and the top share of the relational-database market (InformationWeek - March, 2005), with market share estimated at up to 44.6% in 2005 by some sources. Oracle Corporation's main competitors in the database arena remain IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server, and to a lesser extent Sybase and Teradata , with open-source databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL also having a significant share of the market. EnterpriseDB, based on PostgreSQL, has recently made inroads  by proclaiming that its product delivers Oracle compatibility features at a much lower price-point.

In the software-applications market, Oracle Corporation primarily competes against SAP. On March 22, 2007 Oracle sued SAP, accusing them of fraud and unfair competition.

In the market for business intelligence software, many other software companies — small and large — have successfully competed in quality with Oracle and SAP products. Business intelligence vendors can be categorized into the "big four" consolidated BI firms such as Oracle, who has entered BI market through a recent trend of acquisitions (including Hyperion Solutions), and the independent "pure play" vendors such as MicroStrategy, Actuate, and SAS.

Oracle and SAP

From 1988 Oracle Corporation and the German company SAP AG had a decade-long history of cooperation, beginning with the integration of SAP's R/3 enterprise application suite with Oracle's relational database products. The marketplace[who?] regarded the two firms' products as complementing one another, rather than as substitutes. Despite the current SAP partnership with Microsoft, and the increasing integration of SAP applications with Microsoft products (such as Microsoft SQL Server, a competitor to Oracle Database), Oracle and SAP continue their cooperation. According to Oracle Corporation, the majority of SAP's customers use Oracle databases.

In recent years, however, competition between Oracle and SAP has increased, and as a result, the rivalry between the two companies has grown, even developing into a feud between the co-founders of the two companies, where one party would frequently voice strong negative comments about the other company.

In 2004 Oracle began to increase its interest in the enterprise-applications market (in 1989, Oracle had already released Oracle Financials). A series of acquisitions by Oracle Corporation began, most notably those of PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and Hyperion.

SAP recognized that Oracle had started to become a competitor in a market where SAP had the leadership, and saw an opportunity to lure in customers from those companies that Oracle Corporation had acquired. SAP would offer those customers special discounts on the licenses for its enterprise applications.

Oracle Corporation would resort to a similar strategy, by advising SAP customers to get "OFF SAP" (a play on the words of the acronym for its middleware platform "Oracle Fusion for SAP"), and also by providing special discounts on licenses and services to SAP customers who chose Oracle Corporation products.

Currently Oracle and SAP (the latter through its recently acquired subsidiary TomorrowNow) compete in the third-party enterprise software maintenance and support market. On March 22, 2007, Oracle filed a lawsuit against SAP. The complaint alleged that TomorrowNow, which provides discount support for legacy Oracle product lines, used the accounts of former Oracle customers to systematically download patches and support documents from Oracle's website and to appropriate them for SAP's use. Some analysts have suggested the suit could form part of a strategy by Oracle Corporation to decrease competition with SAP in the market for third-party enterprise software maintenance and support.

On July 3, 2007, SAP admitted that TomorrowNow employees had made "inappropriate downloads" from the Oracle support web site. However, it claims that SAP personnel and SAP customers had no access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow. SAP's CEO Henning Kagermann stated that "Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred." Additionally, SAP announced that it had "instituted changes" in TomorrowNow's operational oversight.

On 23 November 2010 a U.S. district court jury in Oakland California found that SAP AG must pay Oracle Corp $1.3 billion for copyright infringement, awarding damages that could be the largest-ever for copyright infringement. While admitting liability, SAP estimated the damages at no more than $40 million, while Oracle claimed that they are at least $1.65 billion. The awarded amount is one of the 10 or 20 largest jury verdicts in U.S. legal history. SAP said they were disappointed by the verdict and might appeal.

Slogans

As of 2008: "The Information Company"

"Information driven"

For the Oracle Database: "Can't break it, can't break in" or "Unbreakable"

As of 2010: "Software. Hardware. Complete."

As of late 2010: "Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together"

Media

Oracle Corporation produces and distributes the "Oracle ClearView" series of videos as part of its marketing mix.

Controversies

Trashgate

In 2000 Oracle gained attention from the computer industry and the press after hiring private investigators to dig through the trash of organizations involved in an antitrust trial involving Microsoft. The Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, staunchly defended his company's hiring of an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial, calling the snooping a "public service." The investigation reportedly included a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive Technology to look through Microsoft's trash. Asked how he'd feel if others were looking into Oracle's business activities, Ellison said: "We will ship our garbage to Redmond, and they can go through it. We believe in full disclosure.

"Can't break it, can't break in"

At one point, Oracle Corporation marketed many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in," or "Unbreakable. This signifies a demand on information security. Oracle Corporation also stresses the reliability of networked databases and network access to databases as major selling points.

However, two weeks after its introduction in 2002, David Litchfield, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products.Commentators criticized the slogan as unrealistic and as an invitation to crackers, but Oracle Corporation's chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson portrayed the criticism as unfair. Rather than representing a literal claim of Oracle's products' impregnability, she saw the campaign in the context of fourteen independent security evaluations that Oracle Corporation's database server had passed.

Relationship with John Ashcroft

In 2004, then-United States Attorney General John Ashcroft sued Oracle Corporation to prevent them acquiring a multi-billion dollar intelligence contract. After Ashcroft's resignation from government, he founded a lobbying firm, The Ashcroft Group, which Oracle hired in 2005. With the group's help, Oracle went on to acquire the contract.

Recent news

Acquisition of Sun Microsystems

On January 27, 2010, Oracle announced it had completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems - valued at more than $7 billion - a move that transformed Oracle from solely a software company to a manufacturer of both software and hardware. The acquisition was delayed for several months by the EU Commission because of concerns about MySQL, however was unconditionally approved in the end. This acquisition was important to some in the open source community and also to some other companies, as they feared Oracle might end Sun's traditional support of open source projects. Since the acquisition, Oracle has continued raising fears with acts such as discontinuing OpenSolaris and suing Google over their newly acquired Java patents from Sun.

Justice Department lawsuit

On July 29, 2010, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against Oracle Corporation alleging fraud. The lawsuit argues that the government received deals inferior to those Oracle gave to its commercial clients. The DoJ added its heft to an already existing whistleblower lawsuit filed by Paul Frascella, who was once senior director of contract services at Oracle.

Acquisition of Phase Forward

On August 11, 2010, Phase Forward, a company that developed data management systems for the pharmaceutical industry, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation. Some analysts believe this acquisition has a huge impact on the healthcare and life sciences software market. For example Loraine Lawson writes that "health care isn't just another vertical. It's the vertical to watch, an area where spending has stayed strong despite economic turmoil in other sectors. It's also primed for growth in the United States, where it's the focus of major government reform efforts."

Lawsuit against Google

On August 12, 2010, Oracle announced a lawsuit against Google concerning patent and copyright infringement of Java in Google's development of Android. Oracle claims that "Google’s Android competes with Oracle America’s Java" and that "Google has been aware of Sun’s patent portfolio ... since Google hired certain former Sun Java engineers. Oracle acquired the Java patents when it bought Sun Microsystems in January 2010. Google's reimplementation of the Java platform supports most Java functionality, apart from AWT and Swing, instead supplying a native widget toolkit. This may have been a violation of conditions under which Sun granted OpenJDK patents to use open source Java. The company has also targeted the Apache Foundation, which created the Harmony Java implementation, which Oracle has refused to provide the Java certification testing package for. As of August 2010, the lawsuit is ongoing and may take several years to reach a conclusion.

Discontinuation of OpenSolaris

On August 13, 2010, an internal Oracle memo leaked to the Internet cited plans for ending the OpenSolaris operating system project and community. With Oracle planning to develop Solaris only in a closed source fashion, OpenSolaris developers moved to the Illumos and OpenIndiana project, among others.

Discontinuation of OpenSSO

As Oracle completed their acquisition of Sun Microsystems in February 2010, they announced that OpenSSO would no longer be their strategic product. Shortly after, OpenSSO was forked to OpenAM. and will continue to be developed and supported by ForgeRock.

Hurd replaces Phillips as President

On September 6, 2010, Oracle announced that former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd is replacing Charles Phillips as Oracle Co-President. Apparently Phillips had wanted to leave Oracle since December 2009. "Oracle is clearly capitalizing on this opportunity to get someone strong from a top hardware company," said Forrester analyst James Staten. "In terms of how this helps Oracle against IBM, there is reason to be optimistic.

On September 7, 2010, HP announced a civil lawsuit against Hurd "to protect HP's trade secrets.

The Document Foundation conflict of interest

A number of OpenOffice developers had formed The Document Foundation and had received backing by Google, Novell, Red Hat, and Canonical, as well as some others, but were unable to get Oracle to donate the brand OpenOffice.org, causing a fork in the development of OpenOffice with the foundation now developing and promoting LibreOffice. Oracle has expressed no interest in sponsoring the new project and has asked the OpenOffice developers that have started the project to resign from the company due to "conflicts of interest." On November 1, 2010, 33 of the OpenOffice developers gave their letters of resignation.

HP & Oracle lawsuit

On Jun 15, 2011, HP filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Santa Clara, claiming that Oracle had breached an agreement to support the Itanium microprocessor used in HP's high-end enterprise servers. A week ago, HP sent a "formal legal demand" letter to Oracle to force the world's No. 3 software maker to reverse its decision to discontinue software development on Intel Itanium microprocessor. 

People

Larry Ellison: CEO since he co-founded the company in 1977, and Chairman from 1990 to 2004.

In 1997, Ellison became a director of Apple after Steve Jobs came back to that company. Ellison resigned from the Apple board in 2002, saying that he did not have the time to attend necessary formal board meetings.

On February 14, 2010, Ellison's yacht USA 17 won the second race (in the best of three "deed of gift" series) of the 33rd America's Cup, after winning the first race two days earlier. Securing a historic victory, Ellison and his BMW Oracle team became the first challengers to win a "deed of gift" match. The Cup returned to American shores for the first time since 1995. Ellison was a crew member for the second race.

On August 4, 2010, Ellison announced that he intends to give away most of his wealth to charity as part of Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's "Giving Pledge" initiative. Ellison wrote: "Many years ago, I put virtually all of my assets into a trust with the intent of giving away at least 95 percent of my wealth to charitable causes. I have already given hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and education, and I will give billions more over time. Until now, I have done this giving quietly--because I have long believed that charitable giving is a personal and private matter.

On August 9, 2010, Ellison denounced Hewlett-Packard's board for firing CEO Mark Hurd, writing: "The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago." One month later, Ellison hired Hurd as Co-President of Oracle. Ellison and Hurd are close personal friends - Hurd often plays tennis at Ellison's house.

Bob Miner: Co-founder of the company and co-architect of Oracle Database. Led product design and development for Oracle Database from 1977 to 1992. Spun off a technology group within Oracle in 1992. Oracle board member until 1993.

Ed Oates: Co-founder of the company. Retired from Oracle in 1996.

Bruce Scott: One of the first employees (number 4) at Oracle (then Software Development Laboratories), Scott served as the co-author and co-architect of Oracle V1, V2 and V3.

He originated the sample schema "SCOTT" (containing tables like EMP and DEPT) with the password defaulted to TIGER (named after his daughter's cat).

Together with Umang Gupta in 1984, Scott co-founded and became VP Engineering of Gupta Technologies, which later became Centura Software. Subsequently he founded Inquiry.com, again in the role of VP Engineering, and PointBase, Inc., where he acted as President and CEO. In 2005, he moved to SenSage, Inc. as VP Engineering, and in 2006 additionally joined the advisory board of Abrevity, Inc. In 2007, Scott became VP Engineering at ParAccel, Inc.

Umang Gupta: Former Vice President and General Manager (joined in 1981). Wrote the first business plan for the company. Current Chairman and CEO of Keynote Systems, Inc.

Jeff Henley: Current Chairman (since 2004). Previously CFO of Oracle (1991–2004).

Safra Catz: Co-President (since 2004). In 2009 she was ranked by Fortune as the 12th most powerful woman in business.

Charles Phillips: Past Co-President, replaced by Mark Hurd.

In 2009 Phillips was appointed a member of US President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

On January 21, 2010, Phillips' ex-mistress YaVaughnie Wilkins posted billboards in New York City, San Francisco and Atlanta, revealing their extramarital affair to the public. While the billboards were taken down after a number of days,[95] the mainstream media had already run the story. As a result, Phillips issued a statement on January 21 saying: "I had an 8½-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins. My divorce proceedings began in 2008. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended and we both wish each other well."

Mark Hurd: Co-President (since 2010).

Before Oracle, Hurd was CEO, chairman and president of Hewlett-Packard. He was responsible for turning HP into one of the world's largest and most profitable IT companies. He accomplished this through large acquisitions and aggressive cost-cutting, including major employee layoffs and pay cuts.

On August 6, 2010, Hurd resigned from all of his positions at HP, following discovery of inappropriate conduct in an investigation into a claim of sexual harassment made by former reality TV actress Jodie Fisher.

On September 6, 2010, Hurd was hired by Oracle as Co-President.

On September 7, 2010, Hurd was sued by HP "to protect HP's trade secrets.

History

Ellison took inspiration from the 1970 paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database management systems (RDBMS) named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks. He had heard about the IBM System R database from an article in the IBM Research Journal provided by Ed Oates (a future co-founder of Oracle Corporation). System R also derived from Codd's theories, and Ellison wanted to make Oracle's product compatible with System R, but IBM stopped this by keeping the error codes for their DBMS secret. Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). In 1979 SDL changed its name to Relational Software, Inc. (RSI). In 1982, RSI renamed itself Oracle Systems to align itself more closely with its flagship product Oracle Database. At this stage Bob Miner served as the company's senior programmer. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation.

Part of Oracle Corporation's early success arose from using the C programming language to implement its products. This eased porting to different operating systems (most of which support C). This gave Oracle Corporation an advantage over companies using operating-system-specific languages.Oracle Corporation programmers wrote the first C compiler for the IBM mainframe platform in order to port to that platform.