拉里•埃裏森不再擔任甲骨文CEO
The move closely mirrors the decision 14 years ago by Bill Gates, long Mr Ellison’s arch nemesis in the software world, to hand over the reins at Microsoft while keeping control of its technical direction and taking charge in the boardroom.
Oracle, whose stock market value of $182bn puts it second only to Microsoft, will be run instead by joint chief executives, an arrangement that remains extremely rare in corporate America.
The leadership reshuffle comes as Oracle faces a seismic shift in business software markets as its customers shift to cloud computing. Some analysts immediately questioned the new arrangement, which cements Mr Ellison’s influence over the company’s technology strategy, even though he moved more slowly than some rivals in the shift to the cloud, hitting Oracle’s growth.
In a sign of the race under way to remake the biggest business software companies, German software company SAP also on Thursday announced a deal to buy Concur, an expenses management company that has shifted its own business to the cloud, for $8.3bn
The news came as Oracle reported quarterly results that fell short of analysts’ estimates. Its stock price slipped 2 per cent in after-market trading as it reported revenues of $8.6bn, up 3 per cent, with pro forma earnings per share of 62 cents, up from 59 cents a year before.
The new joint chief executives will be Mark Hurd, who was chief executive of Hewlett-Packard until he was forced out four years ago after an investigation into sexual harassment, and Safra Catz, a former investment banker and long-time Ellison dealmaker and lieutenant.
“It’s the same people, nothing’s really changed – that’s not a good thing,” said John Rymer, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Quarter after quarter are quarter they continue to slide, they’re not making the transition quickly.”
甲骨文公司(Oracle)共同創始人、高科技行業第二大富豪拉里•埃裏森(Larry Ellison)已從這家美國數據庫軟件公司的首席執行官一職上退下，他將擔任公司董事長和首席技術官的新職務。
此舉與14年前比爾•蓋茨(Bill Gates)所做決定十分類似。長期以來，蓋茨一直是埃裏森的死對頭，他在14年前交出了微軟的帥印，繼續控制着微軟的技術方向，並掌管董事會。
甲骨文公司的市值爲1820億美元，在軟件企業中僅次於微軟(Microsoft)。埃裏森退出後，該公司將交由多名首席執行官聯合運營，這種體制在美國企業中極爲罕見。
在甲骨文領導層這次洗牌之際，隨着該公司客戶紛紛轉向雲計算，甲骨文正面臨商業軟件市場的一次大地震。消息傳來，部分分析師立刻對這一新的人事安排提出了質疑。他們認爲，埃裏森在轉向雲計算的過程中被部分競爭對手搶先一步，從而對甲骨文公司的成長造成了傷害，而這一人事安排卻強化了埃裏森對甲骨文公司技術戰略的影響力。
新的聯合首席執行官將由馬克•赫德(Mark Hurd)和薩夫拉•卡茲(Safra Catz)擔任。赫德曾任惠普(Hewlett-Packard)首席執行官，四年前他曾在遭遇性騷擾調查後被迫辭去惠普首席執行官一職。卡茲曾是一位投資銀行家，他曾長期擔任埃裏森的交易商和副手。
在上世紀八九十年代脫穎而出的那批高科技企業中，埃裏森是仍在掌權的最後幾個創業者之一。那批高科技企業的崛起，是藉助了互聯網興起之前出現的客戶端-服務器技術潮流。在埃裏森的同一代創業者中，蓋茨於2008年退出了微軟管理崗位，而埃裏森的朋友和鄰居史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)則在三年前病逝。
據《福布斯》(Forbes)估計，埃裏森個人財富爲513億美元，相比之下蓋茨個人財富爲813億美元。埃裏森多數財富都與甲骨文公司有關，他持有該公司四分之一的股份。
