ORCL
Oracle took a good hit today (~7%). This is one company that always confused me. There core database product is solid but there are other solid databases out there including MySQL. Oracle costs a fortune and most people who buy it just don’t need its power. The other day I had a table with 110 million rows in it and MySQL just wasn’t doing what I needed fast enough where I know that Oracle in the same scenario would be fine. Now I suspect that I could have tweaked MySQL into being fast enough but it does show where each is happiest. But the worst thing about Oracle is the sales people. I have met a few and they are the most arrogant dinks you have ever met. I am not alone. Over the years I have had various customers who commented on just how much of a twit this Oracle sales person or that was. So my question has long been why does Oracle keep making any money? I have never been able to answer this question except to think that people like to buy their big databases from big companies. But now SUN has acquired MySQL so the only reason I can think of most people buying Oracle databases has gone away. Thus I would doubt the future of Oracle.
Counter-argument. Oracle sells more than databases. They sell an entire pile of products that companies need. Well my experience is that companies need databases. The other stuff is well… just other stuff.
My financial plans remain unchanged. I would not bet for or against on Oracle but with SUN in play I would pick against if I had to. But keep in mind that companies like Oracle rarely have any debt and many customers who aren’t about to change databases and thus will buy many more licenses into the distant future so Oracle has plenty of time to turn things around.