If you poured $300,000,000+ into the sport (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2011/11/15/larry-ellison-bets-big-on-americas-cup-racing/" rel="nofollow">http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2011/11/15/larry-el...</a>), and your team was on the verge of an epic comeback from being down 1 to 8, I think you'd probably do the same thing.<p>If you're into sailing it's a seriously exciting event. I can't really blame him.
I see all of the "I would too" comments, but really it's a slap in the face for his customers. He owns Oracle, and he's obviously a fan of the America's Cup competition, perhaps he could have scheduled OpenWorld a bit later?
Well now you have it. Even the company's CEO couldn't care about something called "Cloud Marketplace" and the "Oracle Cloud Database Service."
I'm no fan of Ellison or Oracle but IMHO he's done so much for that company, I have a hard time chiding him for taking a little time off. Very poor timing I'll admit, but I wouldn't be holding my breath at an Oracle event just to hear Ellison speak on a product.