The five biggest Oracle headlines of 2007

The headline-generating machine known as Oracle Corp. didn't miss a step in 2007.

But amid the flood of daily Oracle press releases about products and minor acquisitions, five news stories stood out and made serious waves within the IT industry.

Those five stories, which among other things included a major Oracle business intelligence (BI) acquisition, the release of Oracle Database 11g, and a high-profile Oracle lawsuit against SAP, are sure to continue making news throughout 2008. Here's a rundown of those stories:

1. Oracle sues SAP

Oracle's decision to sue SAP -- specifically, SAP's TomorrowNow arm -- over copyright infringement was perhaps the biggest Oracle story of 2007.

The lawsuit alleges that TomorrowNow, a third-party business application support provider, repeatedly gained unlawful and unauthorized access to Oracle's customer support website and illegally provided customers with proprietary Oracle information.

SAP, which eventually requested mediation in the case and admitted to inappropriate downloads, says that any wrongdoing was confined to its TomorrowNow division.

Not surprisingly, SAP has since expressed interested in selling TomorrowNow to the highest bidder. The case is still making its way through the legal system.

2. Oracle buys Hyperion

Oracle made a big BI splash in March when it announced that it would acquire Hyperion Corp., a BI vendor that specializes in corporate performance management, in a deal worth $3.3 billion.

Oracle, which has been on an acquisition spree over the last several years, buying up more than 30 companies since 2005, immediately told the world that the Hyperion buy meant that Oracle was now the leader in BI software.

"This extends our business intelligence strategy of a year ago, when we launched Oracle business intelligence. That's been one of our highest-growth product lines," Oracle president Charles Phillips said at the time. "We now have the most comprehensive BI product line."
3. Oracle debuts Database 11g

The latest version of Oracle's flagship database management technology, Oracle Database 11g, was released last summer after years of anticipation on the part of Oracle users.

The new release, which includes hundreds of new features and enhancements, left some experts wondering whether Oracle should revise its patching policies to help users better manage all of the newly added functionality. Oracle had come under fire in recent years for sitting on patches for longer than some would like.

"I know that Oracle has to spend an inordinate amount of time testing each patch or each bug fix before they release it in a patch," Brian Peasland, an independent Oracle consultant, said at the time. "But it seems that some of these bugs have been known for two years or even longer before they get patched, and that's just quite disturbing, actually."

4. BEA rejects Oracle takeover bid

Oracle tried to buy enterprise infrastructure software provider BEA Systems Inc. back in October. But like an unpopular kid looking for a prom date, Oracle got summarily rejected.

Oracle initially offered to buy BEA for about $6.66 billion, but BEA's board of directors said the offer was too low. Oracle later refused to increase its bid for the firm.

"We believe our all-cash offer provides the best value for BEA's shareholders and the best home for BEA's employees and customers," Oracle president Charles Phillips said. "This proposal is the culmination of repeated conversations with BEA's management over the last several years."

5. Ellison unveils first Oracle Fusion apps

For years now, Oracle has been touting its Oracle Fusion plan, which will combine "the best" spoils of its many acquisitions onto a brand-new, service-enabled platform. And at Oracle's OpenWorld event last October, Oracle founder Larry Ellison finally gave users a look at what the first Fusion applications will be like.

According to Ellison, the first Oracle Fusion Applications are called Sales Prospector, Sales References and Sales Tools, and they're likely to be released during the first half of 2008.

The three salesforce automation applications, which are based on existing Siebel tools, are not designed to be replacements for applications provided by the likes of Salesforce.com, Ellison said. The key difference between the new applications and Salesforce.com-type applications is that the older tools are designed primarily to help the salesperson forecast, while Oracle's upcoming Fusion tools are designed to "help the salesperson sell."

Author: Mark Brunelli @ searchoracle.com