For Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison business is always personal. Heise-Online relates how Ellison - a fanatical sailor - was once disrespected by SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner:
Als während einer Regatta bei der Jacht von SAP-Mitgründer Hasso Plattner der Mast brach, soll ein Boot von Oracle einfach vorbeigesegelt sein. Der Legende nach revanchierte sich Plattner auf seine Art: Er zeigte der anderen Crew den nackten Hintern.
(In a regatta the yacht of SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner lost its mast and an Oracle boat sailed past. According to legend, Plattner got his revenge in his own way by displaying his bare backside to the rival crew.)
Further fueling Ellison's ire was the decision by Hewlett-Packard's board to dismiss Ellison's friend Mark Hurd as CEO and replace him with Leo Apotheker. Apotheker, as co-CEO of SAP, presided over the company's acquisition of a small customer support company TomorrowNow. Under Apotheker's watch SAP's US unit made hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads and several thousand copies of Oracle’s software. The goal was to avoid license fees and to steal Oracle's customers. Oracle sued SAP and in the battle of the software titans a California jury awarded the largest damages ever - $1.3 billion - in an intellectual property theft case.
Adding to the drama, Ellison's lawyers tried to have Apotheker appear in court but were unable to serve a supoena (see the hilarious Where in the world is Leo Apotheker?).
SAP paid $10 million for TomorrowNow. But it will be the costliest acquisition ever for the German company - and not just in terms of dollars or Euros:
Nun aber bleibt an SAP das Stigma eines Unternehmens haften, das - egal ob indirekt oder unbewusst - geistiges Eigentum verletzt hat. Und das schadet der gesamten Softwarebranche.
("Now SAP will be stuck with the stigma of - whether intentional or not - having stolen intellectual property. And that damages the entire software industry.")
Don't think for a second that Ellison will be satisfied with the court verdict. He won't stop until Oracle replaces SAP as the largest business software group in the world.
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