Charles Phillips
The Larry, Mark and Safra show at Oracle
September 7, 2010: 12:52 AM ETOracle's hiring of ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd sends two signals: Larry Ellison doesn't plan on calming his executive suite -- and IBM is even more in his sights.
On paper, everything is right about Mark Hurd becoming co-president of Oracle (ORCL). He is the operational yin to CEO Larry Ellison's innovative yang. Once the innovators of Silicon Valley looked down on the business people who knew how to make budgets, manage people and market their brilliant inventions. Now the technical geniuses 
recognize those other types are needed.
Hurd is the ideal foil to Ellison. He was an accomplished executive even before he took his game up several notches when he moved from smallish NCR (NCR) to megalithic Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). Ellison, meanwhile, is a profoundly insightful technologist who has managed to stay one step ahead of industry changes while famously managing to avoid the nitty-gritty of business operations that don't interest him.
In practice, however, the arrival of the recently departed HP hard-charger will roil an already tumultuous executive suite at Oracle. More
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What will Oracle buy next?
Weighing the odds on how that $70 billion will be spent.
Since Oracle (ORCL) co-President Charles Phillips said in July that the company could spend $70 billion in acquisitions in the next five years -- a statement the company retracted the following day -- I've been curious to see some insightful speculation on what Oracle would buy. One investor I spoke to believes that Oracle looked at 3Par (PAR), which Hewlett-Packard MORE
Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large - Sep 3, 2010 8:00 AM ET -
Oracle plans to double acquisition budget
Bringing on Sun Microsystems, BEA and Hyperion may look like small potatoes when they're done
by Laura Rich, contributor
Oracle (ORCL) will spend $70 billion in acquisitions over the next five years, Oracle president Charles Phillips said at the Brainstorm Fortune Tech conference in Aspen. "It's early in the game, and there's plenty left to do," he said.
Such a budget -- fueled by increased spending from enterprise customers -- would be a MORE
Jul 22, 2010 7:50 PM ET -
Silicon Valley's most underrated CEO
Strong first quarter earnings underscore the prowess of Oracle's Ellison.
I spent most of the summer reporting and writing a feature story about Safra Catz, the enigmatic co-president of Oracle (ORCL). I talked to oodles of people about Catz's ambitions, her value to the company, the likelihood of her becoming CEO, and her relationship with Charles Phillips, Oracle's other co-president.
All this is in the article, published in the current issue of MORE
Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large - Sep 16, 2009 5:13 PM ETPosted in: Apple, Charles Phillips, enterprise software, Larry Ellison, Microsoft, Oracle, Safra Catz, SAP, Steve Jobs -
The Enforcer: Who is Oracle's Safra Catz?
She's CEO Larry Ellison's secretive but effective right hand, and one of the most powerful women in Silicon Valley. But who is she, really?
After months of on-again-off-again negotiations to sell itself to IBM, Sun Microsystems this spring found a new, if unlikely, suitor. Oracle, the business-software giant, in many ways promised to be a better fit for Sun, the beleaguered maker of server computers.
A Silicon Valley neighbor whose CEO, Larry MORE
Adam Lashinsky, Sr. Editor at Large - Sep 10, 2009 10:11 AM ET
