Oracle agrees to buy SuccessFactors rival Taleo for $1.9B
Software titan and now cloud services provider Oracle has agreed to acquire talent management cloud company Taleo for $1.9 billion, the companies announced today.
The deal greatly mirrors the $3.4 billion acquisition of employee performance management software provider SuccessFactors by enterprise software giant SAP. Oracle and SAP are involved in an intensifying battle for large enterprise customers, as their software and cloud offerings begin to overlap. With SAP buying SuccessFactors, the only proper thing for … Continue Reading
5 cloud trends you won’t want to miss in 2012
Industry analysts like to refer to 2011 as “the year the cloud arrived.” But now that it’s here, what are we going to do with it?
We’ve got a few ideas.
Vendors are tripping over themselves to bolster their product lineups with cloud-hosted software and services, while customers in the public and private sectors alike are realizing the cost saving benefit of letting someone else worry about their servers and applications. And that’s not even … Continue Reading
IBM security software knows your job and what you’re allowed to do
Your job comes with a web of security permissions that an IT department has to regulate. IBM‘s newest security software, however, knows what role you have and can assign access before the IT guys ever have to lift a finger.
A lot of companies use software that limits what an individual employee can do on the computer. Some classes of employees, such as sales people, are allowed access to different applications, software, and social media … Continue Reading
Oracle stock drops 9% after weaker-than-expected earnings
Software titan Oracle reported underwhelming quarterly results this afternoon, leading the company’s stock to drop more than 9 percent in after-hours trading.
Oracle provides enterprises and governments with software and data-center hardware. Sales for the company’s fiscal second quarter disappointed Wall Street analysts. The company’s revenues were up just 2 percent to $8.8 billion, and profits amounted to 54 cents per share. Analysts had expected sales of $9.23 billion and a per-share profit of 57 … Continue Reading
One company calls out cloudwashing’s worst offenders
Cloud computing. What once was a controversial, cutting-edge term is now part of seemingly everyone’s vocabulary.
From ads in last year’s Super Bowl to billboards in airports across the world, “the cloud” is everywhere. Many of today’s solutions do offer the benefits of cloud computing, but we’re also seeing an increasing amount of cloudwashing.
We saw the rise of cloudwashing — the practice of painting over traditional IT technology with the word “cloud” — begin … Continue Reading
CEOs love iPads, and other things you need to know about the cloud
Last week, VentureBeat hosted its first ever CloudBeat conference. It was a huge success (if we do say so ourselves), with more than 400 executives from cloud startups, leading cloud service providers, and various Fortune 500 companies coming together to talk shop. You can check out complete coverage of panels, talks and sessions here.
A few big themes came up over the two day conference. Let’s take a look at the highlights.
The hybrid public-and-private
SAP-SuccessFactors: 9 reasons why this is a smart acquisition
Software giant SAP acquired internet software company SuccessFactors on Saturday for $3.4 billion, in what most accounts praised as a commendable move to embrace the so-called “cloud.”
The “cloud” is a buzz-word that refers to the new way applications are being delivered: over the Internet.
Some analysts said the price SAP is paying for SuccessFactors was “nuts.” It’s a whopping 49 percent premium over SuccessFactors’ market value. SuccessFactors sells software that helps manage employee performance. … Continue Reading
Why Oracle’s customers have been clamoring for a public cloud (video)
At the CloudBeat conference today, we caught up with Oracle VP Rick Schultz and asked him to elaborate on Oracle’s upcoming public cloud offering.
Fresh off a session about public and private cloud technologies, Schultz spoke about the importance of choice for Oracle’s customers — choice in layers of cloudiness (if you will), choice in public and private options, et cetera.
And while Schultz says private cloud offerings tend to be the most popular choice … Continue Reading
Eloqua CEO talks about how SaaS empowers companies
Marketing automation firm Eloqua is in a “quiet period,” but that didn’t stop CEO Joe Payne at CloudBeat 2011 from talking about his company and how the basic SaaS services it provides are transforming business.
For reference, Eloqua offers various SaaS services that help clients with analytics to help predict revenue performance and its IPO, which could happen in the next few months, could help validate just how important and big marketing automation is right … Continue Reading
Oracle VP talks challenges of the public cloud model
About two months ago, Oracle announced it would finally take the plunge into public cloud computing with the Oracle Public Cloud. Oracle technology product marketing VP Rick Schultz talked more about the public cloud today and admitted it was a new frontier for the previously cloud-agnostic company.
Schultz talked with VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall on stage at CloudBeat 2011 in Redwood City. The crux of the conversation concerned how Oracle is moving to launch its … Continue Reading
Oracle accuses HP and Intel of secretly keeping dead Itanium chip alive
Oracle filed court documents late last week contending that Hewlett-Packard and Intel have secretly been keeping the unpopular Itanium server chip alive, even though no one wants to buy it.
“HP has secretly contracted with Intel to keep churning out Itaniums so that HP can maintain the appearance that a dead microprocessor is still alive,” according to a filing obtained by All Things D. “The whole thing is a remake of Weekend at Bernie’s,” the … Continue Reading
Oracle puts down $1.5B for RightNow’s cloud-based sales force service
Oracle plans to acquire cloud-based sales force automation and customer service company RightNow for $1.5 billion, the company announced Monday morning.
The planned acquisition makes a ton a sense in light of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s announcement earlier this month to finally push Oracle into public cloud computing after many years of shunning cloud services. The Oracle Public Cloud will let its customers use Oracle apps direct from the Web or deploy native apps in … Continue Reading
Google vs. Oracle trial delayed, but it’s no threat to Android, spokesperson says
The judge in the ongoing Google/Oracle lawsuit over Android and its use of Java has issued a stay. That means the trial will be delayed, and no new date has yet been set.
Sources close to the matter tell us the trial, which was previously scheduled to begin on October 31, had to be put off because of the judge’s full schedule, which includes a particularly thorny gang trial.
Also, the U.S. Patent and Trademark … Continue Reading
Oracle pays $200M settlement for overcharging the U.S. government
Oracle has paid out in excess of $199.5 million to settle a case with the U.S. government.
The case, which was brought to light by former Oracle senior director of contract services Paul Frascella in 2007 and was pursued by the Justice Department, claimed that Oracle had overcharged the U.S. government for nine years while giving steep discounts to corporate entities.
Claims included the allegation that Oracle had discounted goods and services by up to … Continue Reading
Benioff unplugged: Salesforce.com chief says CEOs who don’t change will face a Corporate Spring (video)
Everybody should see Marc Benioff live and unplugged. The chief executive of Salesforce.com gave an amusing keynote speech at the AME restaurant in San Francisco this week after getting booted out of Oracle OpenWorld 2011.
We caught his Q&A with reporters after the keynote and have shared the video below. Benioff’s off-the-cuff presentation is worth catching, since it was kind of overshadowed this week by a lot of other news.
Benioff got into a tiff … Continue Reading
Oracle’s Larry Ellison finally puts his head in the cloud
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison on Wednesday finally announced that his company would take the plunge into public cloud computing with Oracle Public Cloud. He made the announcement on stage at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference.
Oracle’s emphasis for several years has been on powerful hardware and software solutions for data centers and enterprise customers. Ellison in the past decried true cloud solutions as “water vapor” and “idiocy.” But the company will soon provide infrastructure as a service … Continue Reading
Live from a restaurant: Marc Benioff’s Oracle OpenWorld keynote
Today Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com, warned everybody in the tech industry to embrace social networking and cloud computing or face obsolescence.
In a talk that was originally supposed to be a keynote at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, Benioff said, “Social tech is shaking our industry at the core. It’s our job to transform our own businesses with social power.”
Salesforce.com has made a big push to add social elements to its cloud-based customer relationship … Continue Reading
Oracle cancels Marc Benioff’s keynote speech at Oracle OpenWorld
Just a day before the talk, Oracle canceled the keynote speech of competitor Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com. Benioff was scheduled to talk about cloud computing at the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 conference on Wednesday morning.
But Benioff, in classic fiery fashion, has decided to hold his keynote speech anyway, inside a nearby restaurant.
“Oracle just canceled my keynote tomorrow,” he said in a statement. “But the show must go on! Everyone is welcome to … Continue Reading
The $800M question: What’s the difference between trademark and copyright?
Confused about the difference between trademark and copyright? Don’t be. It’s a mad, mad world, and even Oracle is getting it mixed up, in its suit against Google.
Sun v. Microsoft
Ten years ago, when Sun sued Microsoft over Java, Sun alleged trademark infringement because Microsoft was not implementing Java according to Sun’s specification. Microsoft had entered into a license agreement with Sun — promising to follow the specification. When Microsoft deviated from the specification, … Continue Reading
Google drops legal bomb in its own front yard as Oracle goes after Android
This week, three surprising scenarios emerged in initial depositions in the ongoing Google/Oracle lawsuit.
First, a Google engineer admitted he may have copied Sun’s code in his work on Android.
Also, Google documents show the company worked to give Motorola and Verizon early access to new versions of Android, known as “forks” — and a significant time-to-market advantage along with it.
And finally, we learned that Sun at one time wanted to walk away from … Continue Reading
