Ballmer thinks Oracle is barking
You wouldn't catch me buying a hardware outfit
Thursday, 23 April 2009, 14:02
SOFT SPOKEN Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer has whispered that Oracle is mad to be buying a hardware outfit like Sun.
He said software outfits should leave hardware companies alone and he would never dream of buying one and would never let his daughter date one.
Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, Ballmer also ruled out buying Yahoo, but said the pair were talking about an Internet search advertising partnership that could help it turn around its money-losing online business and challenge rival Google. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
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I like it how most of the industry is saying it's a logical, sensible and definitely value-add move for Oracle that fits in with all their acquisitions in the past few years. Oracle gain Solaris, control of Java which they are heavily invested in, even a server hardware division so they can sell all-in-one solutions (Oracle datacentre in a box!) if they wanted to. Maybe they could get rid of that ridiculous reseller-only sales system they use, but Sun liked that too.
I think it's Sun Microsystems that doesn't want to date Steve Ballmer's daughter. Afterall, you could technically say "I'm dating Ballmer". As Sylvie would put it: "Barf".
Well, Oracle probably is a little nuts, this deal has "doom" written all over it, but I suppose there was a little panic when they realized all those Oracle Database licenses would be IBM DB2 licenses, shortly, if Sun sold to IBM. Oracle seems to think they'll be able to increase Sun margins, which should also be amusing to watch. Sun markups are already too high, that's why they are losing share to IBM and HP.
But it also strikes me as just a little hypocritical for Steve Ballmer to say a software company shouldn't do hardware. Seems Microsoft has a fair amount of hardware:
* Xbox 360
* Zune
* Microsoft Mice
* Microsoft Keyboards
etc.
Microsoft is smart enough to not get involved in computer hardware. Consumer oriented hardware is low-margin but high-volume business. Looking at Apple, there is obviously much money to be made there.
The situation is markedly different in the world of servers which are high-margin but low-volume. The problem is that servers are only high-margin because they are still not widely seen as a commodity. Most software (and many hardware) manufacturers are working very hard to commoditise the server market because it benefits everyone from Intel to Microsoft, and previously, would have benefited Oracle.
The cheaper the servers, the more servers that sell. The more servers sold, the more software licenses you can sell.
The trick is NOT TO SELL the servers yourself or you find yourself at the losing end of a game of shrinking margins. Oracle just jumped, head-first, into the shallow end of the pool.
Balmer better wake up and smell the crap. Oracle not only has an enterprise class database, they will have their own enterprise class Unix OS, Servers, and storage arrays to run that big database on. Microsoft has nothing enterprise class that can even compete with that. What dream land is Balmer living in? The one next door to Steve Jobs house?
...And that's with the power pack outside. If you try a comparison against the old xbox (with built in power), the 360 is as big as that. Maybe the Americans like their stuff extra large, just look at their burgers they come in extra, extra large - same as their clothings.
BIG, DUMB and UGLY period!
With people like Sony the R&D never stops and different revisions keep being released. The benefits are obvious but mainly security as well as cost saving, not to mention functions/features etc. that's what you gain if you have your own hardware capability [morons].
May have made errors/mistakes, too drunk to proofread.
Bye.
MSN's page is jam packed full of useless shite. A bit like Yahoo's page, only MSN is much worse.
Google's page is almost bare.
MS and Yahoo just cannot see what all of us can. DONT FILL THE PAGE WITH USELESS slow loading SHITE and we might use your search.
MS can't even search their own site, I regularly have to use google to find MS Support KB articles because MS Support cannot find them.
I'm wondering... if MS is not interested in h/w, then what are all those high profile chip designers / architects that they have been hiring the past years? Just a few days ago didn't they hire Tremblay, the principle chip designer of Sun??
Just wondering....
I always thought Ballmer wouldn't recognise a real software company if he saw one.
Sun has invented more original software than Ballmer has thrown chairs. Unlike Nanomush, which has perfected the art of stealing other people's ideas (either by buying their companies or just plain using them without permission).