Ho hum…Earlier this month, Oracle spent another $3.3 billion buying a major software vendor. This time it was Hyperion, the leading provider of software for financial consolidation, budgeting, and planning. Those of us who thought Oracle’ acquisition appetite might be satisfied for now were wrong again. A pattern seems to have formed – Oracle makes a major acquisition each winter and fills in with smaller ones in the warmer seasons.
While the Hyperion deal is obviously a big deal for Oracle, the near term relevance to JD Edwards customers appears to be limited. As another clue to the puzzle that is Oracle’s applications and business intelligence (BI) strategy, however, this plot twist is worth examining.
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If the claims that Oracle makes against SAP in its 44-page lawsuit turn out to be the gospel truth, SAP’s TomorrowNow subsidiary engaged in a massive effort to steal intellectual property from Oracle’s Customer Connection web site. While that would be deplorable, it would be equally laughable. Why? Because if TomorrowNow’s employees did rob Oracle blind, they left dozens of clues that they did the deed. That has me wondering whether TomorrowNow wants to get its 15 minutes of fame on the Stupid Criminals web site.
Crooks or Clowns?
Allow me to offer some allegations from Oracle’s lawsuit that would demonstrate, if they are true, how stupid TomorrowNow’s employees were. According to Oracle…
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This morning, the bitter competition between Oracle and SAP took a new and decidedly nasty turn. Oracle filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court that alleges SAP and its TomorrowNow subsidiary have stolen “…thousands of proprietary, copyrighted software products and other confidential materials” from its password-protected Customer Connection web site. Oracle also alleged that SAP and TomorrowNow stole the materials so that it could offer cut rate support services to customers who use Oracle software and attempt to lure them to SAP’s applications.
The Great Customer Connection Heist?
According to the lawsuit, Oracle noticed at the end of November 2006 that there were unusually high levels of downloads taking place from the Customer Connection web site. As all JD Edwards users who are on Oracle software maintenance know, Customer Connection is a central repository for updates, bug fixes, patches, and a wealth of technical tips and higher-level information. It represents billions of dollars of investment on Oracle’s part, not to mention the investment that the JD Edwards team has made in EnterpriseOne and World materials.
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