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"It could be worse. I could be Tom Cruise" - Ellison
Words, wisdom and a dig at Bill Gates...

By Jon Bernstein

Published: Monday 25 June 2001

Larry Ellison is at it again setting the world to rights and passing judgement on anyone and anything on - or remotely near - his radar.

In one of his rare interviews granted to the UK media, Ellison, the 56-year old founder and driving force behind Oracle (and silicon.com's favourite rent-a-quote), shared a few gems with yesterday's Observer.

The far from publicity shy Ellison even had the cheek to bring Bill Gates' to task for the publicity that has surrounded the latter's charitable foundation.

Here then, for those who missed it, is the pick of yesterday's interview.

Ellison on the Tech Wreck
"Things at the very least are not getting worse. We think that this quarter behind is the worst we're going to have and it wasn't that bad. It beat expectations and our profit margins were 40 per cent."

Ellison on long-term losers
"It's going to be a much harder road for Cisco or Nortel or Lucent. They were party to building this massive internet. There's much more capacity than we need by a factor of 50 to one. The overbuilding will cause a slump."

Ellison on giving (and Gates)
"I don't issue a press release every time I donate money. I have no PR department around my medical foundation."

Ellison on the media
"It could be worse. I could be a movie star. Poor Tom Cruise is visiting England all the time to sue someone."

Ellison on Ellison
"You guys [in the media] have a job to do and it's kind of your job to make me interesting and sometimes you make me a little more interesting than I actually am. Sometimes I read the stories and it doesn't sound like the me that I think I know."