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Don Tennant

Stirring IT Up

An intriguing Apple 'What if?' scenario

3 comments

TAGS:Apple, Larry Ellison, Macintosh, Oracle, Steve Jobs
IT TOPICS:Enterprise Software & Services, Macintosh & Apple

In our "Macintosh Insurrection" cover story in this week's print edition, an earlier version of which was posted on our site last month, Rob Mitchell looks at why such an insurrection could happen in the enterprise, and why it probably won't. The story raises an intriguing question: If Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's bluster about acquiring Apple back in the late ‘90s had panned out, would Apple be more enterprise-friendly today?

The prospect of Ellison acquiring what was then a very sick Apple was all the buzz in early 1997. This was long before blogs became popular, but you could still weigh in on the prospect by e-mailing savapple@us.oracle.com. A lot of people dismissed the prospect as Larry being Larry, but when I spoke with Ellison in January of 1997, he insisted that a deal was closer than a lot of people realized, and that it would have happened if Jobs hadn't nixed it. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

TENNANT: Now that Apple Computer's course has pretty much been set [with Steve Jobs' return to Apple the previous month], what's the story behind the story? How serious were you about going after Apple in [former Apple CEO] Michael Spindler's final days?

ELLISON: Very serious. In fact we even lined up the money. But that was not Oracle buying Apple, that was Steve Jobs and me buying Apple. We had lined up the money, and Steve decided in the end that he didn't want to do it. I've always viewed Apple as Steve's company. He's my best friend, and my friendship with him is very important. We decided not to go ahead. It was his choice.

TENNANT: What did Jobs say to you when he was approached by Apple to come back and bring NeXT Software with him?

ELLISON: He thought the NeXT technology would help Apple enormously, and we still believe that. I believe the NeXT technology will help, but what will help even more is if Apple listens to Steve very carefully.

TENNANT: What's Steve saying to them?

ELLISON: I'm not sure I can disclose all of that. I'm not sure I know all of that. Steve thinks a number of things have to be changed at Apple -- major things -- and I really don't want to go into it. [Apple CEO] Gil [Amelio] may do it and Gil may not do it. We just don't know.

In any case, suppose the team of Ellison and Jobs had acquired Apple. Wouldn't Ellison likely have done everything in his power to leverage his investment in Apple to boost his standing in the enterprise? Wouldn't Apple have a much more formidable presence in the enterprise today?

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Can you say disaster?

Submitted by Michael on February 28, 2008 - 2:43 P.M.

In 2002 Oracle acquired Steltor maker of the excellent enterprise calendar product CorporateTime. Today the re-named Oracle Calendar is an also-ran product, basically on life-support. Steltor gave us free licenses for college students, Oracle took those away.

The list of companies that end up as shadows of their former selves after being acquired is depressingly long. Apple Computer acquired by Oracle would have been just one more casualty.

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It would be in the enterprise but it wouldn't be Apple

Submitted by Menk on February 28, 2008 - 10:00 A.M.

Having worked at Oracle at the time, I must say that if there had been the influence of a combined Oracle Apple it might be more of an enterprise friendly approach >(i.e advance product roadmaps, bland design, and overdone marketing)

For sure such an entity wouldn't be delivering elegant solutions like the iPod and the iPhone.

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The Orale What if? Scenario

Submitted by Phacetious Plebbe on February 26, 2008 - 9:22 A.M.

I believe you are correct that we would have seen a more formidable presence in enterprise today. You might have had an entire line of computers that would have catered to the business user almost exclusively, in terms of digital imaging reproduction, the interactivity, as we now see with iChat, the video conferencing mode. I believe that so much would have changed, in tandem with the change that Steve jobs brought (and has brought) to Apple. I hope that is the direction that Apple will eventually seek to go in, if even to create a division of their computer arsenal/lineup to do so. I have been using Apple for a bit of business thus far, and although not all the facilities are there, it is clear to me that Apple has a lot to offer the average business user. And that is without Apple even trying. What would happen if they did try?

Just my thoughts, no great soapbox rhetoric about their superiority.

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