> The relationship between Oracle and NetSuite goes back decades. Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s CEO, previously ran Oracle’s marketing operations in the 1990s. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is NetSuite’s largest investor. As of March, Ellison and his family owned about 45.4 percent of NetSuite’s common stock, according to a company filing. Ellison has “control over approval of significant corporate transactions,’’ according to the filing.<p>Hmm, I wonder if the NetSuite board will approve this:)<p>Man, Microsoft has its OS and Office revenue to<p>Google and Facebook have their advertising revenue<p>Oracle has its licensing revenue<p>Amazon has its everything store revenue.<p>Apple has its iPhone revenue.<p>The big tech incumbents all figuratively print money each quarter.<p>If the long reported bubble burst ever gets around to happening, it's hard not to see them as the big winners. With piles of cash on hand and cash reserves growing can anyone make the case that they don't become the lender of last resort to cash strapped startups?<p>Side note, I'm surprised that Oracle is still running with Safra Catz and Mark Hurd as co-CEO's. I figured that that setup along with a very strong willed founder in Ellison, would cause some spectacular implosion at some point:)
At least it is not a software I use an like, that is devoured by Oracle this time.<p>(Of course Oracle makes great stuff. In a company as big as Oracle, there are always niches that create great things. But most offerings are dreadful. And most open source acquisitions did not fare especially well under Oracle)
This news is interesting because with NetSuite's acquisition, it leaves no <i>significant</i> SMB SaaS player for SAP or MSFT to acquire immediately. All eyes are on their next announcement.<p>Anybody got a few hundred million sitting around and wants to build another SaaS ERP/SCM solution? :)
On perhaps unrelated note, I think it'd be important for NetSuite to make sure their site's up the day Oracle buys them out, otherwise it 'd make both them and Oracle look bad. ( <a href="http://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml</a>, click on Free product tour - Oops )
I would imagine we'll continue to see Oracle acquire mature software companies that are built upon their database. It makes a ton of sense for them - they instantly cut the primary cost of the business (Oracle licensing). Quite frankly the Oracle licensing alone will probably justify the purchase price.<p>As long as it isn't a startup where the braintrust instantly fleeing makes the product essentially worthless, it makes sound business sense.
I've never understood why Oracle was so highly valued by Wall St. Databases have always had FLOSS alternatives. So how did an expensive proprietary solution (with lots of closed and open competitors) become so all-powerful and valuable?<p>On a related note: anybody on here want to work on some kind of innovative enterprise database startup? (I don't have any ideas, I just want to work on one because I see a lot of potential).
At first I thought this purchase was a "holy batshit batman" event, but because of ""Oracle, which sells software to big corporations, has been trying to shift to cloud-based products, which made up only about 8 percent of total sales in its fiscal fourth-quarter."" then I guess it makes sense.
Am I the only one looking at the NetSuite patent list and trying not to foresee Oracle's next move.<p>Ref: <a href="http://stks.freshpatents.com/Netsuite-nm1.php" rel="nofollow">http://stks.freshpatents.com/Netsuite-nm1.php</a>
On a slight, but related side note, is there a way to stop Chrome from auto playing audio when you first open a web page?<p>I'm supposed to be working here - not surfing Hacker News!