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Tag: Oracle

  • FairSearch Coalition Adds Oracle, Nokia And Allegro Group

    FairSearch Coalition Adds Oracle, Nokia And Allegro Group

    The FairSearch Coalition, initially made up of travel sites who sought to get Google’s deal with ITA Software blocked by regulators last year, continues to grow, despite Google’s apparently strengthening argument against those who find its business anti-competitive.

    New to the group are Oracle, Nokia and Allegro Group. FairSearch today shared a statement from EU Counsel Thomas Vinje, saying:

    The FairSearch coalition welcomes the Allegro Group (based in Poland), Nokia (based in Finland), and Oracle (based in California) as new members. Their addition is emblematic of the global scope of Google’s anti-competitive search and business practices, which harm consumers by curbing innovation and choice, not just in Web services, but also in mobile, and any platform where Google abuses its dominant position.

    The global footprint of FairSearch’s membership is consistent with investigations by U.S., European Commission, and other authorities of Google’s abuse of its dominant position. Any effective and permanent end to Google’s anti-competitive practices must be applied globally, be legally binding, and come with strong mechanisms for ongoing monitoring and enforcement to prevent the search giant from restoring its abusive practices. As long as competition is threatened anywhere, as in Eastern Europe, where the Allegro Group operates in more than 15 countries, consumers and innovators will continue to lose out everywhere.

    Vinje counts all three of these new members as clients.

    FairSearch has been getting quite a bit of criticism of its own lately. Search industry vet Danny Sullivan blasted the group last week after some apparently misleading comments made at an event it held.

    Omri Shabat at Working Home Guide says, “FairSearch.org is everything but fair about search,” talking about several strategic moves by the group, and concluding, “To summarize, it looks like FairSearch has almost nothing with fairness, reliability or protecting the consumers’ best interests. It also seems that its only objective is to ram Google on every opportunity it has while pretending to be unbiased and only serving the group members’ self-interests.”

    It’s worth noting that Expedia, a member of FairSearch has, itself, been accused of violating antitrust laws, and Microsoft, another member, was the subject of one one of the most famous antitrust cases in history.

    Oracle, of course, just lost a lengthy legal battle of its own with Google (though the company will appeal).

  • Oracle Acquires SelectMinds, Launches Retail Mobile PoS, Banking Platform

    Oracle Acquires SelectMinds, Launches Retail Mobile PoS, Banking Platform

    Oracle announced that it is acquiring cloud-based talent sourcing app maker SelectMinds. The company’s apps provide tools for businesses in recruiting, hiring, and employee social connections.

    “Recruiting candidates through employee referrals is widely acknowledged as the most effective method to find talent through trusted contacts. Making recruiting efforts efficient and seamless by leveraging social connections and through mobile applications helps companies find better quality candidates and continue to build the pipeline for future talent,” said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. “By adding SelectMinds to Oracle’s Talent Management Cloud, Oracle can help customers with a complete talent management solution, enabling streamlined recruiting practices, more quality referrals, faster employee on-boarding, and better performance.”

    SelectMinds CEO Anne Berkowitch added, “Oracle’s proposed acquisition of SelectMinds represents a strong endorsement of SelectMinds intuitive social sourcing technology and the value customers have achieved with our solutions. We’re excited to be a part of Oracle, and look forward to combining our resources to better serve and support customers with more global scale.”

    Oracle says SelectMinds products are already fully integrated with Oracle Cloud Recruiting, Perfromance Management ANd Human Capital Management solutions.

    Oracle has also introduced a new mobile point-of-service extension for retailers called Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service.

    “Gartner research shows that retailers are extremely interested in mobile POS as a way to transform the check-out experience,” said Jeff Roster, Research Vice President, Gartner. “As one of the four transformational forces that Gartner has defined as part of its Nexus of Forces research, mobility, including mobile POS, will be a key area for experimentation and investment for retailers going forward.”

    In addition to all of that, Oracle has launched its new banking platform, which the company describes as a comprehensive suite of business applications for large global banks.

  • Oracle Case Commentators Paid By Google Are Officially Irrelevant

    Oracle Case Commentators Paid By Google Are Officially Irrelevant

    In August, a federal court in California said Google failed to comply with an order to disclose the names of individuals that have talked about the the company’s ongoing legal battle with Oracle, and have received payment from Google. Eventually, Google, while making it clear that nobody was paid to discuss the case, Google did reveal of list of people who have openly discussed the case, who happen to be or have been paid by Google.

    Apparently satisfied, the judge overseeing the case, has ended the examination with both companies’ dealings with bloggers and journalists, reports Reuters.

    According to a report from the news agency, Judge William Alsup issued on order on Tuesday, indicating he would “take no further action regarding the subject of payments by the litigants to commentators and journalists.”

    In the document, Google had named employees (and former employees) William Patry, Timothy Bray, Bruce Perens, Mark Lemley, James Gosling, and Timothy B. Lee, as well as the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Jonathan Band, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Lauren Weinstein at Vortex Technology, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

    While apparently irrelevant at this point, the document is available for viewing here.

    On September 4, Alsup ordered Oracle to pay Google $1 million to cover court costs related to the case, though Google had initially sought $4 million for this reason.

    Oracle still intends to appeal the ruling that Google did not infringe upon Oracle Java copyrights, as it was ruled that Java API elements are not copyrightable.

  • Oracle Reportedly Ordered To Pay Google $1 Million

    Oracle Reportedly Ordered To Pay Google $1 Million

    Last time we checked in with the ongoing legal dispute between Google and Oracle, Google was providing the court with a list of people it has paid, who have shared comments about the case (though, Google says it has never paid anyone to comment on the case).

    Today, a judge reportedly ordered Oracle to pay Google $1 million to cover court costs related to the case.

    In July, Google was demanding that Oracle pay $4 million to cover legal fees, including nearly $3 million to cover “fees for exemplification and the costs of making copies of any materials where the copies are necessarily obtained for use in the case,” and another million for “fees for printed or electronically recorded transcripts necessarily obtained for use in the case,” and “compensation of the court-appointed expert”.

    The judge shot down Google’s request that Oracle pay $2.9 million for costs related to document discovery, IDG News reports.

    Judge William Alsup is quoted as saying, “The problem with Google’s e-discovery bill of costs is that many of [the] item-line descriptions seemingly bill for ‘intellectual effort’ such as organizing, searching, and analyzing the discovery documents. Most egregious are attempts to bill costs for ‘conferencing,’ ‘prepare for and participate in kickoff call,’ and communications with co-workers, other vendors, and clients. These are non-taxable intellectual efforts.”

    In a court filing previously obtained by Wired, Google claimed to had “collected documents from over 86 custodians” for use in the case, and “delivered to its document vendor over 97 million documents for electronic processing and review”.

    A jury sided with Google in June, before a judge ultimately dismissed Oracle’s claim that Google infringed on Oracle’s Java copyrights, ruling that Java API elements are not copyrightable.

    Oracle still intends to appeal.

  • Researchers Have Already Cracked The Latest Java Update

    Researchers Have Already Cracked The Latest Java Update

    Oracle released a security alert yesterday in response to the recently discovered zero-day vulnerabilities that affected Java. Security Explorations were the first to discover the exploit back in April, but Oracle wasn’t going to fix it until their hand was forced by hackers. Their hand may be forced yet again by the company that found the last exploit.

    Security Explorations says that they have found a new vulnerability in the latest version of Java that was released yesterday. If discovered, the vulnerability would allow hackers to escape the Java sandbox and run code on the underlying system. It sounds pretty bad, but there’s no reason to worry yet.

    In an email to CSO, Security Explorations CEO Adam Gowdiak said that Oracle’s patch was effective in stopping the previously used attacks that were infecting computers. The patch from yesterday only took care of the immediate threat however. Security Explorations submitted 29 vulnerabilities in April and only the most pressing issues have been fixed so far.

    The concern comes in the form of a new vulnerability that was just recently discovered. Gowdiak says that hackers could combine the new exploit with other unpatched exploits to “achieve a full JVM sandbox bypass.” It’s certainly a cause for concern, but Security Explorations has already submitted a report to Oracle.

    For now, it’s safe to use Jave if you have the latest patch installed. There’s no indication that hackers are using new Java exploits to break into your system. If everything goes according to plan, hackers won’t have access to any such exploits until they have been patched by Oracle.

  • Oracle Finally Patches Huge Java Exploit

    Oracle Finally Patches Huge Java Exploit

    It was brought to the Internet’s attention on Monday that Java was susceptible to a pretty nasty exploit that could see a user’s PC infected with malware. It was later revealed this morning that Java knew about the exploit since April, but was holding off on a patch until the regularly scheduled update in October. Fortunately, the urgency of the situation has forced their hand.

    Oracle issued a security alert today that addresses the three vulnerabilities that were discovered in Java back in April by Security Explorations. The vulnerability, if exploited, would allow a hacker to take control over a user’s computer and steal confidential information. It also had the potential to add any number of PCs to a botnet for other illegal actions.

    Oracle’s security alert does give us a bit more information in regards to what versions of Java are affected. The previous reports said that it was only Java 7 that was affected, but Oracle says that Java 6 update 34 and before are also affected by the exploit.

    Oracle has released updated versions of Java for developers and end users that patches the security holes. Developers can hit up Oracle’s developer site for the latest versions of the Java SDK and JRE 7/6 releases. End users can either download the newest version from Java’s Web site or just get it through automatic updates on the Windows platform.

    It’s a relief that Oracle fixed this latest exploit so quickly. I, like a lot of other people, was concerned that Oracle would hold on updating Java until October. It’s pretty much a given, but everybody should go download the Java fix as soon as they can. System administrators should be especially hasty in applying the patch lest their entire network falls victim to an attack.

  • Oracle Knew About Java Exploits Since April

    Oracle Knew About Java Exploits Since April

    We brought you news on Monday that hackers were using two big zero-day exploits in Java to install malware on victims’ PCs. Due to Oracle’s tiered update process, we won’t see a potential fix until October. As it turns out, they may not have been zero-day exploits at all. In fact, Oracle may have known about the current exploits for months.

    PC World is reporting that a security firm, Security Explorations, warned Oracle about the current exploits in Java back in April. The firm published a press release on April 2 that said they found 19 weaknesses in the Java platform. On that same day, they sent a notice to Oracle containing all 19 of the vulnerabilities. Among those 19 were the two that are being used now in hacking attacks.

    After receiving the notice, Oracle only patched three of the 19 reported vulnerabilities in the June update. The company sent Security Explorations a notice in August saying that they were going to fix the two currently exploited weaknesses alongside 17 other flaws in the October patch.

    Of course, this brings up the question of how hackers got a hold of these weaknesses. Security Explorations says that the recent attacks exploit the flaw in a different way from their report. They don’t suspect anybody of leaking critical security information, but they aren’t ruling it out either. Somebody on the black market would probably pay a pretty penny for such exploits, but there’s nothing to suggest such a scenario.

    As for now, we can only wait on Oracle for a fix. They will definitely patch the problems in October, if not sooner. It would look bad on Oracle if they waited to fix such a critical security hole though. For now, your best off just disabling the Java plugins in your browser.

  • Google Gives Court List Of Oracle Case Commentators, Which It Has Paid (But Not To Comment)

    Google Gives Court List Of Oracle Case Commentators, Which It Has Paid (But Not To Comment)

    As reported last week, a California court said that Google failed to comply with an order to disclose names of individuals that have talked about Google’s legal battle with Oracle online, and have received payment from Google. Google maintains that it has not paid anyone to discuss the case, but the company has given the court a list of consultants, contractors, vendors, employees, and employee-commenters at organizations who receive money from Google.

    “In response to the Court’s August 20, 2012 Order to Supplement (Dkt. 1238), Google again states that neither it nor its counsel has paid an author, journalist, commentator or blogger to report or comment on any issues in this case,’ Google attorney Robert Van Nest (pictured) says in the document. ‘Pursuant to the Court’s clarifications in the Order to Supplement, the required disclosure does not include advertising revenue, disclosed experts, or gifts to universities…It does, however, include (a) “all commenters known by Google to have received payments as consultants, contractors, vendors, or employees”; and (b) employeecommenters at organizations who receive money from Google.”

    “As Google indicated in its initial Response (Dkt. 1237) Google supports a wide range of individuals and organizations, many of whom regularly comment on issues relevant to technology, often taking positions adverse to Google,” Van Nest continues. “Google has conducted a reasonable and diligent search, and has identified specific individuals and organizations in this supplemental disclosure who have commented on the issues in this case. Google did not pay for comments from any of the commenters listed in this disclosure. Nor did Google cite or rely on any of these commenters in its briefing in this case.”

    The following Google employees (and former employees) are named in the document: William Patry, Timothy Bray, Bruce Perens, Mark Lemley, James Gosling, and Timothy B. Lee.

    Also named are: Computer and Communications Industry Association, Jonathan Band, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Center for Democracy and Technology, Lauren Weinstein at Vortex Technology, and Competitive Enterprise Institute.

    You can read the full document here (via BBC News)

  • Judge Indicates Google Has Not Complied With Paid Blogger Request, Sets Friday Deadline

    Judge Indicates Google Has Not Complied With Paid Blogger Request, Sets Friday Deadline

    On Friday, Google and Oracle each told a California court that they did not pay journalists or bloggers for coverage of their lengthy legal battle, after a judge ordered them to disclose if they had done so.

    Google reportedly said in a statement, “Neither Google nor its counsel has paid an author, journalist, commentator or blogger to report or comment on any issues in this case. And neither Google nor its counsel has been involved in any quid pro quo in exchange for coverage or articles about the issues in this case.”

    IDG reports that Monday, the judge said Google has “failed to comply” with the court’s original order.

    Oracle had suggested that Google had a “network of direct and indirect ‘influencers’ to advance Google’s intellectual property agenda.” Even Google had suggested that there could be an indirect financial connection to views expressed, regarding the case from entities like universities, political and trade associations, people who use Google’s ad products on their sites, Google employees, consultants and witnesses, IDG reported. The company maintained that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to provide a complete list of such entities.

    The judge gave Google until Friday to come up with a list, as allowed by a “reasonably diligent search.”

    Essentially, the judge seems to be looking for consultants, contractors, vendors and employees, which Google can easily pinpoint as those who have commented on the case. The company is not expected to account for customers using Google’s ads.

    The case, which has been going on for roughly two years, continues, despite an apparent victory for Google earlier this summer. Oracle still intends to appeal.

  • Google and Oracle Ordered to Reveal Shill Bloggers

    Google and Oracle Ordered to Reveal Shill Bloggers

    The court battle between Google and Oracle has been long and brutal for both companies. Each was forced to submit data and information to the court that they would rather have kept secret. When Oracle’s claim that Google illegally used Java patents in its Android mobile OS was finally dismissed, the entire debacle ended up looking as if it was just a huge money sink. For Oracle especially, the lawsuit was a longshot bet that didn’t pay off.

    With a trial as large and as complicated as this one, though, the wrap-up of the trial is still being conducted. One of the loose ends the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, wants tied-up is who Google and/or Oracle may have paid to write about the case, including bloggers, journalists, commentators, and authors. Alsup’s court order makes it clear that he believes such information might be valuable in case of appeal or remand. From the court order:

    The Court is concerned that the parties and/or counsel herein may have retained or paid print or internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have and/or may publish comments on the issues in this case. Although proceedings in this matter are almost over, they are not fully over yet and, in any event, the disclosure required by this order would be of use on appeal or on any remand to make clear whether any treatise, article, commentary or analysis on the issues posed by this case are possibly influenced by financial relationships to the parties or counsel. Therefore, each side and its counsel shall file a statement herein clear identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in this case and who have received money (other than normal subscription fees) from the party or its counsel during the pendency of this action. This disclosure shall be filed by NOON ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012.

    It will be very interesting to see just how much each of these companies invests in tailor-made press coverage. It will also be a revealing look into just how deep the paid blogosphere goes. With a lawsuit as nasty as this one, in which both companies’ CEOs were dragged into the courtroom to testify, it comes as no surprise that the battle extended beyond the court room and into the tech press.

  • Oracle Buys Network Virtualization Firm Xsigo Systems

    Oracle Buys Network Virtualization Firm Xsigo Systems

    Oracle announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire network virtualization technology provider Xsigo Systems.

    “The proliferation of virtualized servers in the last few years has made the virtualization of the supporting network connections essential,” said Oracle Executive Vice President of Systems, John Fowler. “With Xsigo, customers can reduce the complexity and simplify management of their clouds by delivering compute, storage and network resources that can be dynamically reallocated on-demand.”

    Xsigo CEO Lloyd Carney said, “Customers are focused on reducing costs and improving utilization of their network. Virtualization of these resources allows customers to scale compute and storage for their public and private clouds while matching network capacity as demand dictates.”

    Fowler sent the following letter to Oracle’s customers and partners about the acquisition:

    Dear Customers and Partners,

    On July 30, 2012, Oracle announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Xsigo Systems, a leading provider of network virtualization technology that simplifies cloud infrastructure and operations by allowing customers to dynamically and flexibly connect any server to any network and storage. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals and is expected to close in the fall of 2012. Until the transaction closes, Oracle and Xsigo will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual.

    Companies are looking to deploy virtual servers to reduce data center costs and meet the agility and performance demands of cloud environments. Virtualized servers require more bandwidth and connections to external network and storage resources, which can lead to higher connectivity costs and complex data center management.

    Xsigo’s software-defined network products help customers increase asset utilization and application performance while reducing costs by delivering compute, storage and network resources that can be dynamically reallocated on demand. Xsigo complements Oracle’s software, server, storage, and network product portfolio, and the combination is expected to deliver the most complete set of virtualization capabilities for cloud environments.

    More information about the proposed combination of Oracle and Xsigo can be found at oracle.com/xsigo.

    We appreciate your continued support.

    Regards,

    John Fowler
    Executive Vice President
    Systems
    Oracle

    Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but it seems likely that the Oracle is paying a pretty penny.

    Last week, VMware announced that it is acquiring software-defined networking (SDN)/network virtualization provider Nicira for $1.05 billion in cash plus about $210 million of assumed unvested equity awards.

  • Guess How Much Money Google Wants From Oracle

    Guess How Much Money Google Wants From Oracle

    Google has demanded that Oracle pay $4 million to cover legal fees incurred during the highly publicized legal battle the two companies endured.

    Google wants nearly $3 million to cover “fees for exemplification and the costs of making copies of any materials where the copies are necessarily obtained for use in the case,” and another million for “fees for printed or electronically recorded transcripts necessarily obtained for use in the case,” and “compensation of the court-appointed expert”.

    In a court filing obtained by Wired, Google claims to have “collected documents from over 86 custodians” for use in the case, and “delivered to its document vendor over 97 million documents for electronic processing and review”.

    97 million documents. It sounds like Kristen Zmrhal, Project Manager of Discovery at Google, who managed Google’s document collection and production for the case, had a pretty enormous task.

    A jury sided with Google last month, before a judge ultimately dismissed Oracle’s claim that Google infringed on Oracle’s Java copyrights, ruling that Java API elements are not copyrightable.

  • Oracle Founder Larry Ellison Purchases the Island of Lanai

    Oracle Founder Larry Ellison Purchases the Island of Lanai

    Ever since news broke that self made billionaire David Murdock was selling his private Hawaiian island of Lanai, there has been a lot of speculation as to who the new owner would be. There were talks that a serious buyer was lined up, but no one would disclose who it was. Many believed it was either Larry Ellison, who regulary vacations on the island, or Bill Gates, who married his wife there. It turns out that one of the rumors was true: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reached a deal to buy the island of Lanai from Murdock’s Castle and Cooke Inc.

    Neither party has given a sales price, but as we reported before, the asking price was estimated at over $500 million dollars. Both parties agreed not to share the information because it includes personal financial information that could competitively hurt Ellison and Murdock if publicly disclosed.

    As part of the deal, David Murdock will keep his home on the island and the right to build a wind farm, a project that has drawn the ire of the island’s residents. The windfarm would place windmills on approximately 20 square miles of the island, and supply power to the islnd of Oahu via an oceanic cable. Residents want to see Lanai as a self-sufficient entity not simply a power plant for another more “touristy” island.

    Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and is listed as the sixth richest man in the world by Forbes Magazine. He has an estimated net worth of $36 billion, and plans to pay cash to acquire the island.

    Right now the deal has not reached completion pending Hawaiian utilities commission approval of the transfer of the islands water, bus and shuttle service, and waste water treatment facilities. Castle and Cook has requested this meet approval by June 26 and the commission has stated that they will make their best efforts to have it finished by that time. Expect the sale to close shortly thereafter.

    Lanai was once owned by James Dole of Dole Food Company Inc, and was subsequently given the name “pineapple island”. Murdock shut down pineapple production when he purchased the island in 2000 to make way for residential homes and a luxury resort.

    Island residents are hopeful that the Ellison purchase will bring more jobs to help alleviate the high unemployment rate. Many hope that he will bring the island closer to sustainability, without resting solely on the tourism industry, which has been in decline.

    [source: AP]

  • Oracle Finally Gives Up on Google Paying Statutory Damages

    Oracle Finally Gives Up on Google Paying Statutory Damages

    Oracle has finally given up on hoping Google will be made to pay any statutory payments from their Java API patent infringement case regarding the development of the Android Operating Systems.

    If you remember, back at the end of May, a jury found that Google did indeed not infringe on any of Oracle’s Java patents.

    On Monday, both parties once again reconvened in U.S. District Court to tie up loose ends. It was a brief session, but three main issues were addressed. Issue number one, Google will pay nothing in statutory damages, this according to a stipulation filed earlier that day by Oracle.

    Next, Google has only fourteen days to file any applications requesting Oracle to pay legal administrative fees on the search giant’s behalf. This would also be the time for Google to request Oracle pay all legal fees incurred as a result of the case.

    And third, there’s the matter of legal fees incurred by professionals hired on both sides to assess the total value of the case as a monetary figure. The idea here is to get all these outstanding issues cleared up so Oracle can go ahead with its appeal on the case.

    We still have to wait to see what Judge William Alsup, the judge hearing the case, has to say about Oracle paying legal fees, but it sounds like Oracle will definitely be moving forward with an appeal.

    So, while Google is victorious in defending infringement claims against the Android platform for now, it could be a relatively short time before we see them back in court again.

  • Oracle Reports Fiscal Q4 2012 Earnings

    Yesterday, Oracle released their Q4 2012 fiscal results. The company has had a big year and overall, things are looking up.

    GAAP revenues for the quarter are up 1% to almost $11 billion. Non-GAAP total revenues were also up 1% and came in at exactly $11 billion.

    New software license revenues for both GAAP and non-GAAP, were up 7% to $4.0 billion. Software license updates and product support revenues, GAAP and non-GAAP were up 5% to $4.2 billion.

    Systems products revenues for GAAP and non-GAAP were down 16% to $977 million. Operating income (GAAP) was up 5% to $4.6 billion, and operating margin (also GAAP) was 42%.

    For non-GAAP, operating income was up 5% to $5.5 billion, and operating margin was 50%. Non-GAAP net income came in at $4.1 billion, up 7%, while GAAP net income came in at $3.5 billion, up 8%.

    GAAP earnings per share were $0.69, up 11% compared to last year, while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 10% to $0.82. Operating cash flow (GAAP) for fiscal year 2012 was $13.7 billion, up 23% compared to last year.

    Here’s what Oracle had to say in their earnings report:

    Without the impact of the US dollar strengthening compared to foreign currencies, Oracle’s reported Q4 GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.03 higher at $0.72, up 16%, and Q4 non-GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.04 higher at $0.86, up 15%. Both GAAP and non-GAAP total revenues also would have been up 5%, GAAP new software license revenues would have been up 11%, non-GAAP new software license revenues would have been up 12% and both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues would have been down 13%.

    For fiscal year 2012, GAAP total revenues were up 4% to $37.1 billion, while non- GAAP total revenues were up 4% to $37.2 billion. GAAP new software license revenues were up 7% to $9.9 billion. Non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 8% to $9.9 billion.GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 10% to $16.2 billion, while non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 9% to $16.3 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were $3.8 billion.

    GAAP operating income was up 14% to $13.7 billion, and GAAP operating margin was 37%. Non-GAAP operating income was up 8% to $17.2 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 46%. GAAP net income was up 17% to $10.0 billion, while non-GAAP net income was up 10% to $12.5 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $1.96, up 18% compared to last year while non- GAAP earnings per share were up 11% to $2.46.

    Oracle President, Mark Hurd comments on the results of the fourth quarter:

    “Our engineered systems business is now operating at well over a billion dollar revenue run rate,”

    “For the year, the Exadata, Exalogic, Exalytics, SPARC SuperCluster and the Oracle Big Data Appliance product group grew over 100% year-over-year.”

    Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz comments on the results of the fourth quarter:

    “Our record-breaking fourth quarter featured several all-time highs for Oracle: new software license sales of $4 billion, total software revenue of $8 billion, total revenue of $11 billion, and EPS of 82 cents,”

    “For the fiscal year, we also set all-time highs for operating margins of 46%, and operating cash flow of $13.7 billion.”

    Oracle Chief Executive Officer, Larry Ellison comments on the results of the fourth quarter:

    “The development of Oracle Cloud is strategic to increasing the size and profitability of Oracle’s software business,”

    “Our Oracle Cloud SaaS business is nearly at a billion dollar revenue run rate, the same size as our engineered systems hardware business. The combination of engineered systems and the Oracle Cloud will drive Oracle’s growth in FY 2013.”

  • Oracle to Deliver the Most Comprehensive Cloud on Planet Earth

    Oracle to Deliver the Most Comprehensive Cloud on Planet Earth

    Yesterday Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced that his company is poised and ready to deliver the most comprehensive cloud this planet has ever seen, and there’s some real substance to what he’s saying.

    Oracle’s new public cloud features their fusion applications delivered as both software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). On top of their new social network, they will also offer database and Java services.

    A considerable edge which Oracle has over their competition is top-notch security. One of their first customers was the Central Intelligence Agency, and that experience has been at the forefront of all Oracle’s endeavors ever since.

    Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison comments:

    “We have very comprehensive, fine-grained security in our system,”

    “Your database is not commingled with other customers’ data,”

    “It’s a big difference between our cloud and others on the market.”

    “Modern virtual technology is how we offer safety.”

    Check out Ellison’s first tweet from the Oracle Social Network:

    Larry Ellison
    @larryellison     Oracle’s got 100+ enterprise applications live in the #cloud today, SAP’s got nothin’ but SuccessFactors until 2020
    14 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Actually it is a monumental achievement for Oracle who took a lot of flak for moving all their applications from on-premise to the cloud many years back. They have invested heavily over the past half decade and it has really paid off for them. Cloud computing is the next big thing and they were on of the first to get there.

    Ellison again comments:

    “We think a modern cloud lets you decide when you want to upgrade, not have the cloud vendor tell you when you have to upgrade,”

    “We think that’s a very big deal. We’ll allow you, within reason, to decide when to upgrade.”

    And it seems that Oracle is still investing heavily in the future. Earlier this week we reported on the company’s intention to acquire Collective Intellect, a cloud-based social monitor and analytics firm. The addition of Collective Intellect to Oracle’s already broad base of client services will allow their customers to understand and anticipate consumer’s actions on a much fuller spectrum.

    Late last month, Oracle also revealed their plan to acquire Virtue Social Marketing Platform. Among other things, Virtue allows clients to manage social media campaigns across Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and YouTube. This investment alone cost Oracle over $300 million.

    So it’s clear Oracle has no plans to stop and this newest public cloud is their shining masterpiece and, most likely, the foundation for all their future innovations and refinements. They don’t seem to worried about the competition, it sounds like they are ahead of the pack on this one.

  • Oracle to Buy Cloud-Based Social Monitor, Collective Intellect

    Today, Software-as-a-Service provider, Oracle announce its plans to acquire Collective Intellect, a cloud-based social media monitor.

    The addition of Collective Intellect will allow Oracle to offer organizations quicker response to media feedback, more specifically targeted advertising, and a chance to generate more leads.

    Both entities will continue to operate independently, but oracle will directly benefit from the ability to offer its current and future customers the advantage of real-time social monitoring and analytics. The results of which will be more effective brand and product placement with improved consumer engagement.

    Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of Oracle Development comments on the acquisition of Collective Intellect:

    “Gaining intelligence from consumer conversations across social media, and knowing customers’ intentions and interests helps organizations create better products and deliver better service,”

    “Collective Intellect’s leading cloud-based applications for social media monitoring, combined with Oracle’s social relationship platform offers a complete social experience to our customers.”

    Don Springer, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Collective Intellect comments on the acquisition by Oracle:

    “Creating meaningful content based on a clear understanding of consumers’ conversations is the way brands will create stronger customer relationships,”

    “Collective Intellect’s semantic analytics platform provides cutting-edge technology to Oracle that will create a winning combination as brand-to-customer relationships move from transactional to social.”

    Here’s the facts about the acquisition from Oracle’s press release:

    * Oracle announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Collective Intellect. Collective Intellect’s leading cloud-based social intelligence solutions enable organizations to monitor, understand and respond to consumers’ conversations on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

    * Collective Intellect’s cloud-based solutions help organizations transform social conversations into actionable intelligence, creating better marketing campaigns, improving customer service, generating more targeted leads and opportunities, and enhancing products and services with real-time customer feedback.

    * Oracle’s leading sales, marketing, service, commerce, social data management and analytics, combined with Collective Intellect and the recently announced pending acquisition of Vitrue, is expected to create the most advanced and comprehensive social relationship platform.

    * By integrating Collective Intellect with Oracle’s Software-as-a-Service products and Social Platform, Oracle will enable marketing organizations to create more targeted marketing campaigns; help customer service teams respond quickly to customer feedback on social media; generate targeted leads and opportunities for sales teams; and strengthen how companies build more effective brands using the Internet and social media.

    * The combination is expected to enable organizations to build stronger relationships with consumers through intelligent understanding of their social conversations and to respond with appropriate action and engagement.

    * The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. More information on this announcement can be found at http://www.oracle.com/collectiveintellect.

    Collective Intellect is a private company founded in Boulder, Colorado in 2005. The financial particulars of the deal have net yet been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed in second half of 2012.

  • Judge Dismisses Oracle’s Claim Against Google

    It was recently reported that the jury in the Android/Java patent infringement case sided with Google, and now presided Judge William Alsup has ruled that Oracle’s Java API elements are not copyrightable, and dismissed the claim against the search giant.

    For a bit of backstory, Google’s trial against Oracle, who had sued over infringement regarding the use of Java in building the Android OS, finally commenced just weeks ago – 18 months after Oracle’s initial complaint. While the main point of contention is whether or not Google violated any copyrights, the trial was to be more about whether or not Oracle can to get a jury to agree that some portions of its Java APIs (application programming interfaces) can be classified as protected. The outcome of the trial might’ve set a precedent regarding software developers’ use of open-source content.

    Still, Alsup chose to focus on specifics of the Google/Oracle case, and no broad precedent was established. The Judge stated,

    In closing, it is important to step back and take in the breadth of Oracle’s claim. Of the 166 Java packages, 129 were not violated in any way. Of the 37 accused, 97 percent of the Android lines were new from Google and the remaining three percent were freely replicable under the merger and names doctrines. Oracle must resort, therefore, to claiming that it owns, by copyright, the exclusive right to any and all possible implementations of the taxonomy-like command structure for the 166 packages and/or any subpart thereof – even though it copyrighted only one implementation. To accept Oracle’s claim would be to allow anyone to copyright one version of code to carry out a system of commands and thereby bar all others from writing their own different versions to carry out all or part of the same commands. No holding has ever endorsed such a sweeping proposition.

    Alsup made sure his ruling was fairly airtight, so Oracle would have a tough time filing an appeal. Statutory damages for the 9 lines rangeCheck code and eight decompiled Java test files that Google used in Android were awarded to Oracle, but pale in comparison to legal expenses. Oracle might come out with around $300,000 – and likely spent upwards of $10 million mounting their case.

    Google, of course, is pleased with the outcome, and spoke on some of the virtues of software development collaboration:

    The court’s decision upholds the principle that open and interoperable computer languages form an essential basis for software development. It’s a good day for collaboration and innovation.

    Oracle released a statement, claiming that an appeal will be filed, and that it will continue to police the use of Java worldwide:

    Oracle is committed to the protection of Java as both a valuable development platform and a valuable intellectual property asset. It will vigorously pursue an appeal of this decision in order to maintain that protection and to continue to support the broader Java community of over 9 million developers and countless law abiding enterprises. Google’s implementation of the accused APIs is not a free pass, since a license has always been required for an implementation of the Java Specification. And the court’s reliance on “interoperability” ignores the undisputed fact that Google deliberately eliminated interoperability between Android and all other Java platforms. Google’s implementation intentionally fragmented Java and broke the “write once, run anywhere” promise. This ruling, if permitted to stand, would undermine the protection for innovation and invention in the United States and make it far more difficult to defend intellectual property rights against companies anywhere in the world that simply takes them as their own.

    [Via: The Verge]

  • Google Acquires Mike and Maaike

    Google Acquires Mike and Maaike

    Google, on the heels of finally acquiring Motorola for $12.5 billion, has also bought industrial design firm Mike and Maaike, a company that contributed to the design of the G1 smartphone, launched in 2008.

    Here’s a look at the G1:

    While the Motorola acquisition was primarily centered around Google getting ahold of some patents, the search giant’s merger with Mike and Maaike is significant of a further interest in hardware design. Mike and Maaike calls itself a “progressive industrial design studio,” and while building the G1, was committed to “functionality, intelligence, and ease.” The firm has also designed for Belkin, Steelcase, Microsoft, Incase, and the City of San Francisco.

    Now that Google has essentially wrapped up its infringement case concerning Oracle’s Java code used in its Android OS, Google officials have stated that it’s time to maintain a better focus on Android offerings, calling the merger a “natural next step.” Google adds that it’s “even more serious and (ready) to really go for it.”

  • Oracle Likely Spent Millions Suing Google

    Oracle Likely Spent Millions Suing Google

    It was reported yesterday that in Google’s trial regarding Oracle’s accusations that the search giant infringed upon Java API patents in the development of its Android operating system, the jury has just found that no copyrights were violated. And apparently, Oracle never had much of a chance of winning, according to the foreman of the jury, who pointed out that the 12 were split 9-3 in Google’s favor. Now Penn Law Professor R. Polk Wagner speculates that Oracle might’ve spent as much as $10 million on the lengthy trial, all for naught.

    “I would assume this is a several million dollar trial,” Wagner told Ars Technica, adding, “Six weeks is a long trial, plus the case was fairly complex. I would not be surprised if (Oracle’s costs were) more than $10 million once you include the enormous amount of prep work.” Technology attorney Denise Howell points out that though Google too ran up a large tab for its defense, this is obviously easier to handle when one wins, and adds that Oracle might’ve actually spent tens of millions of dollars on the case. And even with the jury’s latest verdict, the trial isn’t over. Patent cases are typically ran by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, so the latest ruling isn’t yet set in stone.

    Still, the presiding Judge William Alsup has already dismissed the jury, and the damages phase of the trial has been cancelled. Oracle released a statement on the present state of the proceedings – “Oracle presented overwhelming evidence at trial that Google knew it would fragment and damage Java. We plan to continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write once run anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility.”

    Oracle brought famous attorney David Boies on board, who had previously represented the Justice Department in the United States v. Microsoft and Al Gore in Bush v. Gore – and Boies will likely be running a tab for the next long while. Howell adds, “Oracle could definitely still get something out of this,” regarding the appeals process, though it’s evident that Oracle plainly wasted a lot of effort and money on little, if nothing.

  • Jury Voted 9-3 in Favor of Google in Oracle Case

    It was recently reported that the jury in the Android/Java patent infringement case sided with Google, and Joe Mullin at Ars Technica reports that the 12 were split 9-3 in the search giant’s favor. Jury foreman Greg Thompson spent some time answering questions for reporters, while Oracle lawyers listened silently, learning that their client didn’t really have a chance at winning all along.

    For a bit of backstory, Google’s trial against Oracle, who had sued over infringement regarding the use of Java in building the Android OS, finally commenced just weeks ago – 18 months after Oracle’s initial complaint. While the main point of contention is whether or not Google violated any copyrights, the trial was to be more about whether or not Oracle can to get a jury to agree that some portions of its Java APIs (application programming interfaces) can be classified as protected. The outcome of the trial might’ve set a precedent regarding software developers’ use of open-source content.

    Again, Oracle had tried to convince the court that the Java APIs were so complex that they could be classified as a protected creative work. Still, Thompson pointed out, even after a prompt from presiding Judge William Alsup to consider the Java APIs as being copyrighted, that the jury still sided with Google’s take on fair use of Oracles’ code – “A lot of the jurors were focused on functionality versus creativity,” Thompson stated, adding that the majority was “putting greater weight on functionality.”

    Still, the jurors weren’t always very pleased with Google’s defense, and thought that they were relying too heavily on ex-Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog comments, which congratulated the search giant on Android’s launch. Thompson stated, “We felt like it wasn’t a good business practice to rely on a blog – Some of us had an underlying feeling that Google had done something that wasn’t right.”

    When it came down to it, the jury couldn’t see the Java APIs as being protected art. Thompson added, “The more tech savvy a person is, the more difficult it might be to convince them of something that would limit [technology]… and future expansion of the common good,” commenting on the jury’s perception of fair use.