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Ellison takes a swipe at old boy Lane
Ray and Larry come to verbal blows over Oracle man's personal slight...

By Sonya Rabbitte

Published: Thursday 21 June 2001

Former Oracle COO Ray Lane is obviously not on Larry Ellison's Christmas card list judging from the Oracle head's comments on his old colleague at this week's Oracle OpenWorld.

The Oracle leader claimed his old colleague was "bewildered" and "confused" on software strategy, and slated Lane's support for IBM's best-of-breed software policy.

Speaking at SAP international ebusiness conference last week, Lane had a dig at Oracle's autonomous approach claiming that no one company could do it all.

Ellison retaliated saying that IBM's approach was flawed, making it expensive and labour intensive for companies to implement software.

He claimed that consultancy firms make up to $1bn on each system installation simply because customers do not understand the best of breed approach.

He said: "IBM sticks together things that were never meant to go together. They stick Ariba with i2, with Broadvision. Best of breed doesn't work."

"Best of breed is why companies take so long to build systems and why it is so expensive. It's madness," he added.

Lane, who left Oracle last July is now a partner with VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byer.