this testosterone showoff larry ought to get his $%^$%^ wacked sooner or later. this desperate acquisition seems indication that is will be sooner than later. oracle core could hit more database trouble than is expected. 2005 will be a nice surprise year.

Ellison's timing is impeccable. Just imagine......Retek acquired on the date of the Oracle earnings report. Luck or just plain grit? Who cares? He did it. And PeopleSoft is integrated ahead of schedule. So we'll be privy to another of his performances this afternoon. The numbers should be good according to all the crystal ball gazers I've read so we could have a "ka-ching" re the stock price.

}}} "The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better." - Eric Johnston {{{

Larry's missing the real trick. The real goal in business as in life should be greatness, not bigness.

"The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better." - Eric Johnston

"The dinosaur's eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good, an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better." - Eric Johnston

We tend to think that we're so much better off today than we were hundreds of years ago in the fiefdoms, where battles to dominate a 'territory' were fought by swords and loyalty was bought with title. Don't fool yourself. This was a battle for territory like any other.

Things aren't so different today:

*fiefdoms are now corporations
*multi-nationals are nation-states
*battles are fought on the economic landscape
*loyalty is bought with cash
*the one with the most cash is king

What was it Ellison once said? "It's strange, like I am an actor in a soap opera who plays himself." Seems he's still the star. Poor old SAP.