HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells database software and technology (particularly its own brands), cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software,
customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a r ...
(CRM) software (also known as
customer experience Customer experience (CX) is a totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral consumer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages. Pine and Gilmore described the ...
),
enterprise performance management Enterprise performance management (EPM) is a field of business performance management which considers the visibility of operations in a closed-loop model across all facets of the enterprise. Specific to financial activities in the office of the ch ...
(EPM) software, and supply chain management (SCM) software.


History

Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 with
Bob Miner Robert Nimrod Miner (December 23, 1941 – November 11, 1994) was an American businessman. He was the co-founder of Oracle Corporation and the producer of Oracle's relational database management system. From 1977 until 1992, Bob Miner led produ ...
and
Ed Oates Edward A. Oates (born 1946) is an American businessman. He co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Bob Miner. Software Development Labs later became Oracle Corporation. Education and early employment Ed Oates ...
under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). Ellison took inspiration from the 1970 paper written by
Edgar F. Codd Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd (19 August 1923 – 18 April 2003) was an English computer scientist who, while working for IBM, invented the relational model for database management, the theoretical basis for relational databases and relational datab ...
on relational database management systems (
RDBMS A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...
) named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks." He heard about the
IBM System R IBM System R is a database system built as a research project at IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory beginning in 1974. System R was a seminal project: it was the first implementation of SQL, which has since become the standard relational data ...
database from an article in the ''IBM Research Journal'' provided by Oates. Ellison wanted to make Oracle's product compatible with System R, but failed to do so as IBM kept the error codes for their DBMS a secret. SDL changed its name to Relational Software, Inc (RSI) in 1979, then again to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1983, to align itself more closely with its flagship product Oracle Database. The name also drew from the 1977 CIA project codename, which was also Oracle's first customer. At this stage Bob Miner served as the company's senior programmer. On March 12, 1986, the company had its initial public offering. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation, officially named Oracle, but is sometimes referred to as Oracle Corporation, the name of the holding company. Part of Oracle Corporation's early success arose from using the
C programming language ''The C Programming Language'' (sometimes termed ''K&R'', after its authors' initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the language, as well a ...
to implement its products. This eased porting to different operating systems most of which support C. In 2005, Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, an ERP company, and in 2006 Siebel, a CRM company. In 2008 Oracle acquired BEA Systems, an enterprise infrastructure software company and in 2010 it acquired Sun Microsystems, a computer hardware and software company (famous for its Java programming language). In an effort to compete with
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide ...
and its products, Oracle announced in 2019 it was partnering with former rival Microsoft. The alliance called that
Oracle Cloud Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows the ...
and
Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...
would be directly connected, allowing customers of each to store data on both cloud computing platforms and run software on either Oracle or Azure. Some saw this not only as an attempt to compete with Amazon but also Google and Salesforce, which acquired
Looker ''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Albert Finney, Susan Dey, and James Coburn. The film is a suspense/science-fiction piece that comments upon and satirizes media, advertising ...
and
Tableau Software Tableau Software ( ) is an American interactive data visualization software company focused on business intelligence. It was founded in 2003 in Mountain View, California, and is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington. In 2019 the c ...
, respectively. On December 20, 2021, Oracle announced the acquisition of
Cerner Cerner Corporation is an American supplier of health information technology (HIT) services, devices, and hardware. As of February 2018, its products were in use at more than 27,000 facilities around the world. The company had more than 29,000 emp ...
, a
health information technology Health information technology (HIT) is health technology, particularly information technology, applied to health and health care. It supports health information management across computerized systems and the secure exchange of health informa ...
company. The next day, on December 21, Oracle made public the acquisition o
Federos
an AI and automation tools company for network performance. The acquisition of Cerner was completed in June 2022 for $28.3 billion in cash. On August 23, 2022, Oracle was hit with a class action lawsuit, which alleges that Oracle has been operating a "surveillance machine" which tracks in real-time and records indefinitely the personal information of hundreds of millions of people.


Products and services

Oracle designs, manufactures, and sells both software and hardware products and offers services that complement them (such as financing, training, consulting, and hosting services). Many of the products have been added to Oracle's portfolio through
acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
.


Software

Oracle's E-delivery service (Oracle Software Delivery Cloud) provides generic downloadable Oracle software and documentation.


Databases

* Oracle Database ** Release 10: In 2004, Oracle Corporation shipped release 10''g'' (''g'' standing for "grid") as the then latest version of Oracle Database. (
Oracle Application Server The Oracle Application Server 10g (the "g" stands for '' grid'') (short Oracle AS), consists of an integrated, standards-based software platform. It forms part of Oracle Corporation's Fusion Middleware technology stack. The heart of Oracle Appli ...
10''g'' using Java EE integrated with the server part of that version of the database, making it possible to deploy
web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
-technology applications. The application server was the first middle-tier software designed for grid computing. The interrelationship between Oracle 10''g'' and Java allowed developers to set up
stored procedure A stored procedure (also termed proc, storp, sproc, StoPro, StoredProc, StoreProc, sp, or SP) is a subroutine available to applications that access a relational database management system (RDBMS). Such procedures are stored in the database data di ...
s written in the Java language, as well as, those written in the traditional Oracle database programming language, PL/SQL.) ** Release 11: Release 11g became available in 2007. Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 11g Release 2 in September 2009. This version was available in four commercial editions—Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, and Personal Edition—and in one free edition—the Express Edition. The licensing of these editions shows various restrictions and obligations that were called complex by licensing expert Freirich Florea. The Enterprise Edition (DB EE), the most expensive of the Database Editions, has the fewest restrictions—but nevertheless has complex licensing. Oracle Corporation constrains the Standard Edition (DB SE) and Standard Edition One (SE1) with more licensing restrictions, in accordance with their lower price. ** Release 12: Release 12''c'' (''c'' standing for "cloud") became available on July 1, 2013. Oracle Corporation has acquired and developed the following additional database technologies: *
Berkeley DB Berkeley DB (BDB) is an unmaintained embedded database software library for key/value data, historically significant in open source software. Berkeley DB is written in C with API bindings for many other programming languages. BDB stores arbitr ...
, which offers embedded database processing *
Oracle Rdb Oracle Rdb is a relational database management system for the OpenVMS operating system. It was originally released by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1984 as VAX Rdb/VMS. Product history Rdb was a component of the ''VAX Information Arc ...
, a relational database system running on OpenVMS platforms. Oracle acquired Rdb in 1994 from Digital Equipment Corporation. Oracle has since made many enhancements to this product and development continues . * TimesTen, which features in-memory database operations * Oracle Essbase, which continues the Hyperion Essbase tradition of multi-dimensional database management * MySQL, a relational database management system licensed under the GNU General Public License, initially developed by
MySQL AB MySQL AB was a Swedish software company founded in 1995. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, Sun was in turn acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010. MySQL AB is the creator of MySQL, a relational database management system, as well as ...
* Oracle NoSQL Database, a scalable, distributed key-value
NoSQL A NoSQL (originally referring to "non- SQL" or "non-relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. Such databases have existe ...
database


Middleware

Oracle Fusion Middleware is a family of middleware software products, including (for instance)
application server An application server is a server that hosts applications or software that delivers a business application through a communication protocol. An application server framework is a service layer model. It includes software components available to a ...
,
system integration System integration is defined in engineering as the process of bringing together the component sub- systems into one system (an aggregation of subsystems cooperating so that the system is able to deliver the overarching functionality) and ensurin ...
,
business process management Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business pr ...
(BPM), user interaction,
content management Content management (CM) is a set of processes and technologies that supports the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...
, identity management and
business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...
(BI) products.


=Oracle Secure Enterprise Search

= Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES), Oracle's enterprise-search offering, gives users the ability to search for content across multiple locations, including websites,
XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
files, file servers,
content management systems A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
, enterprise resource planning systems,
customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a r ...
systems,
business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...
systems, and databases.


=Oracle Beehive

= Released in 2008, the
Oracle Beehive Oracle Beehive is collaboration platform software developed by Oracle Corporation that combines email, team collaboration, instant messaging, and conferencing in a single solution. It can be deployed on-premises as licensed software or subscribed t ...
collaboration software Collaborative software or groupware is application software designed to help people working on a common task to attain their goals. One of the earliest definitions of groupware is "intentional group processes plus software to support them". As re ...
provides team workspaces (including wikis, team calendaring and file sharing), email, calendar, instant messaging, and conferencing on a single platform. Customers can use Beehive as licensed software or as software as a service ("SaaS").


Applications

Following a number of acquisitions beginning in 2003, especially in the area of applications, Oracle Corporation maintains a number of product lines: *
Oracle E-Business Suite Oracle Applications comprise the applications software or business software of the Oracle Corporation both in the cloud and on-premises. The term refers to the non-database and non-middleware parts. The suite of applications includes enterprise res ...
* PeopleSoft Enterprise *
Siebel Siebel was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in 1937 in Halle an der Saale.Gunston p.424 History It originated in the Klemm-Flugzeugwerke Halle that had been founded in 1934 as a branch of Leichtflugzeugbau Klemm in Böblingen. Its name ...
*
JD Edwards J.D. Edwards World Solution Company or JD Edwards, abbreviated JDE, was an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company, whose namesake ERP system is still sold under ownership by Oracle Corporation. JDE's products included World for IBM ...
** JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ** JD Edwards World * Merchandise Operations Management (Formerly Retek) * Planning & Optimisation * Store Operations (Formerly 360Commerce) Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (using Oracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example, Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports/BIPublisher). Oracle Corporation has started a drive toward "wizard"-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.


=Third-party applications

= Oracle Corporation works with "Oracle Certified Partners" to enhance its overall product marketing. The variety of applications from third-party vendors includes database applications for archiving, splitting and control, ERP and CRM systems, as well as more niche and focused products providing a range of commercial functions in areas like human resources, financial control and governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). Vendors include Hewlett-Packard, Creoal Consulting, UC4 Software, Motus, and Knoa Software.


Enterprise management

Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) provides web-based monitoring and management tools for Oracle products (and for some third-party software), including database management, middleware management, application management, hardware and virtualization management and cloud management. The Primavera products of Oracle's Construction & Engineering Global Business Unit (CEGBU) consist of project-management software.


Development software

Oracle Corporation's tools for developing applications include (among others): * Oracle Designer – a
CASE Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...
tool which integrates with Oracle Developer Suite * Oracle Developer – which consists of Oracle Forms,
Oracle Discoverer Oracle Discoverer is a tool-set for ''ad hoc'' querying, reporting, data analysis, and Web-publishing for the Oracle Database environment. Oracle Corporation markets it as a business intelligence product. It was originally a stand-alone produc ...
and
Oracle Reports Oracle Reports is a tool for developing reports against data stored in an Oracle database. Oracle Reports consists of Oracle Reports Developer (a component of the Oracle Developer Suite) and Oracle Application Server Reports Services (a component ...
* Oracle JDeveloper, a
freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the ...
IDE * NetBeans, a Java-based software-development platform *
Oracle Application Express Oracle APEX (also known as APEX or Oracle Application Express) is an enterprise low-code development platform from Oracle Corporation that is used to develop and deploy web applications on Oracle databases. APEX provides a web-based integrated ...
– also known as APEX; for web-oriented development *
Oracle SQL Developer Oracle SQL Developer is an Integrated development environment (IDE) for working with SQL in Oracle databases. Oracle Corporation provides this product free; it uses the Java Development Kit. Features Oracle SQL Developer supports Oracle produ ...
, an integrated development environment for working with SQL-based databases * Oracle SQL*Plus Worksheet, a component of Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) *
OEPE OEPE is the acronym for Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, a set of Eclipse plugins to facilitate development of Java SE, Java EE Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), ...
, Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse * Open Java Development Kit * Oracle Developer Studio – a software generation system for the development of C, C++, Fortran, and Java software Many external and third-party tools make the Oracle database administrator's tasks easier.


File systems

* ZFS combines
file-system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one lar ...
and logical volume management functionality. *
BtrFS Btrfs (pronounced as "better F S", "butter F S", "b-tree F S", or simply by spelling it out) is a computer storage format that combines a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle with a logical volume manager (not to be confused w ...
"B-tree File-System" is meant to be an improvement over the existing Linux ext4 filesystem, and offer features approaching those of ZFS.


Operating systems

Oracle Corporation develops and supports two operating systems:
Oracle Solaris Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. After the Sun acquisition by Oracle in 2010, it was renamed Oracle Solaris. Solaris superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993, and became known for ...
and
Oracle Linux Oracle Linux (abbreviated OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red ...
.


Hardware

* The Sun hardware range acquired by Oracle Corporation's purchase of Sun Microsystems *
Oracle SPARC T-series servers The SPARC T-series family of RISC processors and server computers, based on the SPARC V9 architecture, was originally developed by Sun Microsystems, and later by Oracle Corporation after its acquisition of Sun. Its distinguishing feature from earl ...
and M-series mainframes developed and released after Sun acquisition * Engineered systems: pre-engineered and pre-assembled hardware/software bundles for enterprise use ** Exadata Database Machine – hardware/software integrated storage ** Exalogic Elastic Cloud – hardware/software integrated application server ** Exalytics In-Memory Machine – hardware/software integrated in-memory analytics server ** Oracle Database Appliance ** Big Data Appliance – integrated map-reduce/
big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
solution ** SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 – a general purpose engineered system


Services


Oracle Cloud

Oracle Cloud Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows the ...
is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed
data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommuni ...
s. The company allows these services to be provisioned on demand over the Internet. Oracle Cloud provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Data as a Service (DaaS). These services are used to build, deploy, integrate and extend applications in the cloud. This platform supports open standards ( SQL, HTML5,
REST Rest or REST may refer to: Relief from activity * Sleep ** Bed rest * Kneeling * Lying (position) * Sitting * Squatting position Structural support * Structural support ** Rest (cue sports) ** Armrest ** Headrest ** Footrest Arts and entert ...
, etc.) open-source solutions (
Kubernetes Kubernetes (, commonly stylized as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management. Google originally designed Kubernetes, but the Cloud Native Computing Foundation now maintai ...
, Hadoop, Kafka, etc.) and a variety of programming languages, databases, tools and frameworks including Oracle-specific, free and third-party software and systems. * Software as a Service (SaaS) ** Enterprise applications: SCM, EPM, HCM, ERP and CX SaaS offerings **Oracle sells a
SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is cons ...
suite of Oracle Fusion Applications
business application Business software (or a business application) is any software or set of computer programs used by business users to perform various business functions. These business applications are used to increase productivity, measure productivity, and perf ...
s. **On July 28, 2016, Oracle bought NetSuite, the first cloud company, for $9.3 billion. NetSuite provides cloud ERP, CRM, supply chain and e-commerce software to small and medium-sized businesses. It is regarded as the first fully cloud company in the world and is an industry leader in its own right. * Platform as a Service (PaaS) ** Oracle has branded its Platform as a Service as Oracle Cloud Platform. Oracle Cloud Platform include Data Management, Application Development, Integration, Content and Experience, Business Analytics, Management and Security. ** Platform services on which to build and deploy applications or extend SaaS applications: database, Java application server, mobile, business analytics, integration, process, big data, Internet of Things,
Node.js Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript cod ...
etc. * Data as a Service (DaaS) ** Oracle Data Cloud is composed of several acquisitions including AddThis,
BlueKai Oracle BlueKai Data Management Platform, formerly BlueKai, is a cloud-based data management platform which is part of Oracle Marketing that enables companies to personalize online, offline, and mobile marketing campaigns. BlueKai was created i ...
, Crosswise, Datalogix, Grapeshot, and Moat. *
Infrastructure as a Service The first major provider of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was Amazon in 2008. IaaS is a cloud computing service model by means of which computing resources are supplied by a cloud services provider. The IaaS vendor provides the storage, net ...
(IaaS) ** Oracle has branded its Infrastructure as a Service as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offerings include the following services. *** Compute Service *** Storage Service *** Network Service On May 16, 2018, Oracle announced that it had acquired DataScience.com, a privately held cloud workspace platform for data science projects and workloads.


Other services

* Oracle Consulting – technical and business expert services * Oracle Financing * Oracle Marketing & Support ** Product support: Oracle Corporation identifies its customers and their support entitlements using CSI (Customer Support Identifier) codes. Registered customers can submit Service Requests (SRs)—usually via the web-accessible My Oracle Support (MOS), a re-incarnation of Oracle Metalink with web access administered by a site Customer User Administrator (CUA). ** Critical Patch Updates: since 2005 Oracle Corporation has grouped collections of
patch Patch or Patches may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives'' * Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy * "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962 * "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song ...
es and security fixes for its products each quarter into a "Critical Patch Update" (CPU), released each January, April, July and October. ** Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM, previously Customer Configuration repository or CCR) gathers and uploads details of the configuration of Oracle software. ** Oracle Auto Service Request (ASR) automatically creates Service Requests for specific hardware faults on qualified Oracle server, storage, Oracle Exadata, and
Oracle Exalogic Exalogic is a computer appliance made by Oracle Corporation, commercially available since 2010. It is a cluster of x86-64-servers running Oracle Linux or Solaris preinstalled. Its full trade mark is ''Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud'' (derived from ...
products. ** My Oracle Support Community (MOSC) * Oracle University (training in Oracle products) ** Oracle Certification Program * NetSuite Social Impact program assists nonprofits with moving operations to the cloud. In October 2018, Oracle announced the expansion of the program to include product donation, pro bono expansion and online community building. * As of September 13, 2020, Oracle acquired a trade deal with the
ByteDance ByteDance Ltd. () is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing social networkin ...
owned social video platform
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...
. This was the result of an executive order issued by U.S. president Donald Trump stating that TikTok must be sold to a U.S. company by September 15, 2020. The exact nature of the agreement is still unknown, but it implies that Oracle will become TikTok's technology partner and assume responsibility for the company's U.S. user data. The agreement is still pending approval from regulatory government bodies.


Marketing


Sales practices

In 1990, Oracle laid off 10% (about 400 people) of its work force because of accounting errors. This crisis came about because of Oracle's "up-front" marketing strategy, in which sales people urged potential customers to buy the largest possible amount of software all at once. The sales people then booked the value of future license sales in the current quarter, thereby increasing their bonuses. This became a problem when the future sales subsequently failed to materialize. Oracle eventually had to restate its earnings twice, and also settled (out of court)
class-action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...
lawsuits arising from its having overstated its earnings. Ellison stated in 1992 that Oracle had made "an incredible business mistake".Oracle cuts rewards for last-minute deals
Gilbert, Alorie (June 20, 2002). ''CNET News.com'' via zdnetasia.com


Competition

In 1994, Informix overtook Sybase and became Oracle's most important rival. The intense war between Informix CEO Phil White and Ellison made front-page news in Silicon Valley for three years. Informix claimed that Oracle had hired away Informix engineers to disclose important trade secrets about an upcoming product. Informix finally dropped its lawsuit against Oracle in 1997. In November 2005, a book detailing the war between Oracle and Informix was published, titled ''The Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White''. It gave a detailed chronology of the battle of Informix against Oracle, and how Informix Software's CEO Phil White landed in jail because of his obsession with overtaking Ellison. Once it had overcome Informix and Sybase, Oracle Corporation enjoyed years of dominance in the database market until use of
Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ...
became widespread in the late 1990s and IBM acquired Informix Software in 2001 (to complement its Db2 database). Oracle competes for new database licenses on UNIX, GNU, and Windows operating systems primarily against IBM's Db2 and Microsoft SQL Server. IBM's Db2 dominates the mainframe database market. In 2004, Oracle's sales grew at a rate of 14.5% to $6.2 billion, giving it 41.3% and the top share of the relational-database market (''InformationWeek'' – March 2005), with market share estimated at up to 44.6% in 2005 by some sources. Oracle Corporation's main competitors in the database arena remain IBM Db2 and
Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ...
, and to a lesser extent Sybase and
Teradata Teradata Corporation is an American software company that provides cloud database and analytics-related software, products, and services. The company was formed in 1979 in Brentwood, California, as a collaboration between researchers at Caltech ...
, with free databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL also having a significant share of the market.
EnterpriseDB EnterpriseDB (EDB), a privately held company based in Massachusetts, provides software and services based on the open-source database PostgreSQL (also known as Postgres), and is one of the largest contributors to Postgres. EDB develops and int ...
, based on PostgreSQL, has made inroads by proclaiming that its product delivers Oracle compatibility features at a much lower price-point. In the software-applications market, Oracle Corporation primarily competes against
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
. On March 22, 2007, Oracle sued SAP, accusing them of fraud and unfair competition. In the market for
business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...
software, many other software companies—small and large—have successfully competed in quality with Oracle and SAP products. Business intelligence vendors can be categorized into the "big four" consolidated BI firms such as Oracle, who has entered BI market through a recent trend of acquisitions (including Hyperion Solutions), and the independent "pure play" vendors such as MicroStrategy,
Actuate Actuate may refer to: * Actuate Corporation * The action of an actuator An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover". ...
, and SAS. Oracle Financials was ranked in the Top 20 Most Popular Accounting Software Infographic by Capterra in 2014, beating out SAP and a number of their other competitors.


Oracle and SAP

From 1988, Oracle Corporation and the German company
SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
had a decade-long history of cooperation, beginning with the integration of SAP's R/3 enterprise application suite with Oracle's relational database products. Despite the SAP partnership with Microsoft, and the increasing integration of SAP applications with Microsoft products (such as
Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ...
, a competitor to Oracle Database), Oracle and SAP continue their cooperation. According to Oracle Corporation, the majority of SAP's customers use Oracle databases. In 2004, Oracle began to increase its interest in the enterprise-applications market (in 1989, Oracle had already released Oracle Financials). A series of acquisitions by Oracle Corporation began, most notably with those of PeopleSoft,
Siebel Systems Siebel Systems, Inc. () was a software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications—notably Siebel CRM. The company was founded by Thomas Siebel and Pat ...
and Hyperion. SAP recognized that Oracle had started to become a competitor in a markets where SAP had the leadership, and saw an opportunity to lure in customers from those companies that Oracle Corporation had acquired. SAP would offer those customers special discounts on the licenses for its enterprise applications. Oracle Corporation would resort to a similar strategy, by advising SAP customers to get "OFF SAP" (a play on the words of the
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for its middleware platform "Oracle Fusion for SAP"), and also by providing special discounts on licenses and services to SAP customers who chose Oracle Corporation products. Oracle and SAP (the latter through its recently acquired subsidiary
TomorrowNow ''Oracle Corp v. SAP AG'', No. 4:07-cv-01658, was a United States District Court for the Northern District of California case in which Oracle sued SAP, alleging that SAP had engaged in copyright infringement by downloading thousands of copyrighte ...
) compete in the third-party enterprise software maintenance and support market. On March 22, 2007, Oracle filed a lawsuit against SAP. In Oracle Corporation v. SAP AG Oracle alleged that TomorrowNow, which provides discount support for legacy Oracle product lines, used the accounts of former Oracle customers to systematically download patches and support documents from Oracle's website and to appropriate them for SAP's use. Some analysts have suggested the suit could form part of a strategy by Oracle Corporation to decrease competition with SAP in the market for third-party enterprise software maintenance and support. On July 3, 2007, SAP admitted that TomorrowNow employees had made "inappropriate downloads" from the Oracle support website. However, it claims that SAP personnel and SAP customers had no access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow. SAP's CEO
Henning Kagermann Henning Kagermann (born 12 July 1947) is a German physicist and businessman. He was the former chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of SAP. Early life and education Born in Braunschweig, Kagermann studied physics in Brau ...
stated that "Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred." Additionally, SAP announced that it had "instituted changes" in TomorrowNow's operational oversight. On November 23, 2010, a U.S. district court jury in Oakland, California found that SAP AG must pay Oracle Corp $1.3 billion for copyright infringement, awarding damages that could be the largest-ever for copyright infringement. While admitting liability, SAP estimated the damages at no more than $40 million, while Oracle claimed that they are at least $1.65 billion. The awarded amount is one of the 10 or 20 largest jury verdicts in U.S. legal history. SAP said they were disappointed by the verdict and might appeal. On September 1, 2011, a federal judge overturned the judgment and offered a reduced amount or a new trial, calling Oracle's original award "grossly" excessive. Oracle chose a new trial. On August 3, 2012, SAP and Oracle agreed on a judgment for $306 million in damages, pending approval from the U.S. district court judge, “to save time and expense of new trial". After the accord has been approved, Oracle can ask a federal appeals court to reinstate the earlier jury verdict. In addition to the damages payment, SAP has already paid Oracle $120 million for its legal fees.


Slogans

* "Information driven" * For the Oracle Database: "Can't break it, can't break in" and "Unbreakable" * Enabling the Information Age * Enabling the Information Age Through Network Computing" * : "The Information Company" * As of 2010: "Software. Hardware. Complete." * As of late 2010: "Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together" * As of mid 2015: "Integrated Cloud Applications and Platform Services"


Media

Oracle Corporation produces and distributes the "Oracle ClearView" series of videos as part of its marketing mix.


Finances

Oracle was ranked No. 82 in the 2018
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by '' Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. According to Bloomberg, Oracle's CEO-to-employee pay ratio is 1,205:1. The CEO's compensation in 2017 was $108,295,023. Oracle is one of the approved employers of ACCA and the median employee compensation rate was $89,887.


Carbon footprint

Oracle reported total
carbon dioxide equivalent Global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (). GWP is 1 for . For other gases it depends on the gas and the tim ...
(CO2e) emissions (direct + indirect) for the twelve months ending December 31, 2020 at 428 kilotonnes (+63/+17% year over year)Alt URL
/ref> and plans to reduce emissions 26% by 2025 from a 2015 base year.


Controversies


Trashgate

In 2000, Oracle attracted attention from the
computer industry A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
and the press after hiring private investigators to dig through the trash of organizations involved in an antitrust trial against Microsoft. The Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, staunchly defended his company's hiring of an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial, calling the snooping a "public service". The investigation reportedly included a $1,200 offer to janitors at the
Association for Competitive Technology Introduction ACT , The App Association is a trade association with membership including small to mid-sized technology companies and application software developers around the world. The App Association represents entrepreneurs, innovators, and in ...
to look through Microsoft's trash. When asked how he would feel if others were looking into Oracle's business activities, Ellison said: "We will ship our garbage to Redmond, and they can go through it. We believe in full disclosure."


"Can't break it, can't break in"

In 2002, Oracle Corporation marketed many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in", or "Unbreakable". This signified a demand on
information security Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthoriz ...
. Oracle Corporation also stressed the reliability of networked databases and network access to databases as major selling points. However, two weeks after its introduction,
David Litchfield David Litchfield (born 1975) is a British security expert and The Director of Information Security Assurance for Apple. Anne Saita, writing for ''Information Security'' magazine, called him along with his brother Mark Litchfield, "World's Best Bu ...
, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products. Oracle Corporation's chief security officer
Mary Ann Davidson Mary Ann Davidson is the Chief Security Officer of Oracle Corporation. Early life Davidson attended the Severn School, a preparatory high school for the Naval Academy, graduating in 1976. Career at Oracle Davidson joined Oracle in 1988, as ...
said that, rather than representing a literal claim of Oracle's products' impregnability, she saw the campaign in the context of fourteen independent security evaluations that Oracle Corporation's database server had passed.


Relationship with John Ashcroft

In 2004, then- United States Attorney General
John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
sued Oracle Corporation to prevent it from acquiring a multibillion-dollar intelligence contract. After Ashcroft's resignation from government, he founded a lobbying firm, The Ashcroft Group, which Oracle hired in 2005. With the group's help, Oracle went on to acquire the contract.


Expeditionary Combat Support System

Computer Sciences Corporation Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...
, as the prime contractor, reportedly spent a billion dollars developing the
Expeditionary Combat Support System The Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) was a failed enterprise resource planning software project undertaken by the United States Air Force (USAF) between 2005 and 2012. The goal of the project was to automate and streamline the USAF's logi ...
for the United States Air Force. It yielded no significant capability, because, according to an Air Force source, the prime contractor "was simply not up to the task of adapting" the Oracle software, on which the system was based, to meet the specialized performance criteria.


Cover Oregon Healthcare Exchange

Oracle Corporation was awarded a contract by the State of Oregon's
Oregon Health Authority The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is a government agency in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was established by the passage of Oregon House Bill 2009 by the 75th Oregon Legislative Assembly, and split off from Oregon Department of Human Services, O ...
(OHA) to develop
Cover Oregon Cover Oregon was the health insurance marketplace for the U.S. state of Oregon, established as Oregon's implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Cover Oregon was intended to enable Oregonians and small businesses to purchase ...
, the state's healthcare exchange website, as part of the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. When the site tried to go live on October 1, 2013, it failed, and registrations had to be taken using paper applications until the site could be fixed. On April 25, 2014, the State of Oregon voted to discontinue Cover Oregon and instead use the federal exchange to enroll Oregon residents. The cost of switching to the federal portal was estimated at $5 million, whereas fixing Cover Oregon would have required another $78 million. Oracle president
Safra Catz Safra Ada Catz ( he, צפרא עדה כץ; born December 1, 1961) is an American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 20 ...
responded to Cover Oregon and the OHA in a letter claiming that the site's problems were due to OHA mismanagement, specifically that a third-party systems integrator was not hired to manage the complex project. In August 2014, Oracle Corporation sued Cover Oregon for breach of contract, and then later that month the state of Oregon sued Oracle Corporation, in a civil complaint for breach of contract, fraud, filing false claims and " racketeering". In September 2016, the two sides reached a settlement valued at over $100 million to the state, and a six-year agreement for Oracle to continue modernizing state software and IT.


Class action tracking lawsuit

On August 23, 2022, Oracle was hit with a
class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
by
Lieff Cabraser Lieff Cabraser is an American plaintiffs' law firm headquartered in San Francisco. The firm was founded in 1972 by Robert L. Lieff. Elizabeth Cabraser became a partner in 1981. Elizabeth Cabraser is a prominent gay leader, and the firm has been ...
representing Michael Katz-Lacabe, Dr. Jennifer Golbeck and Dr. Johnny Ryan, the latter of which is a senior fellow at the
Irish Council for Civil Liberties The Irish Council for Civil Liberties ( ga, An Chomhairle um Chearta Daonna) is an Irish non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the civil liberties and human rights of people in Ireland. History Founded in 1976 by future President Mar ...
. The lawsuit, which demands a jury trial, alleges that Oracle has engaged in "deliberate and purposeful surveillance of the general population via their digital and online existence", specifically focusing on Oracle operating a surveillance machine which tracks in real-time and records indefinitely the personal information of hundreds of millions of people. The litigants against Oracle argue that through such surveillance, the company violates the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, California's state constitution, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, competition law, and California Common Law.


Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

in 2012 Oracle agreed to pay about $2 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC at the time alleged that the company's India subsidiary structured transactions with foreign governments in a way that enabled them to hold about $2.2 million of the proceeds inside funds that could be used for unauthorized purposes and therefore being a violation of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applicable world ...
. In 2022 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced settled charges requiring Oracle Corporation to pay more than $23 million to resolve charges that it violated provisions of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applicable world ...
when subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India created and used slush funds to bribe foreign officials in return for business between 2016 and 2019.


Chinese military clients

Following the 2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, NATO officials raised concern that Oracle technology had assisted the People's Liberation Army to create an "operational picture" for strategic and tactical military operations.


Events


Acquisition of Sun Microsystems

In January 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems—valued at more than $7 billion—a move that transformed Oracle from solely a software company to a manufacturer of both software and hardware. The acquisition was delayed for several months by the European Commission because of concerns about MySQL, but was unconditionally approved in the end. In September 2011, U.S. State Department Embassy cables were leaked to
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
. One cable revealed that the U.S. pressured the
E.U. The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
to allow Oracle to acquire Sun. The Sun acquisition was closely watched by free software users and some companies, due to the fear that Oracle might end Sun's traditional support of free projects. Since the acquisition, Oracle has discontinued OpenSolaris and StarOffice, and sued Google over the Java patents Oracle acquired from Sun.


Fraud Accusations by the US Department of Justice

On July 29, 2010, the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
(DoJ) filed suit against Oracle Corporation alleging fraud. The lawsuit argues that the government received deals inferior to those Oracle gave to its commercial clients. The DoJ added its heft to an already existing whistleblower lawsuit filed by Paul Frascella, who was once senior director of contract services at Oracle. It was settled in 2011.


Lawsuit against Google


Background

Oracle, the plaintiff, acquired ownership of the Java computer programing language when it acquired Sun Microsystems in January 2010. The Java software includes sets of pre-developed software code to allow programs and apps to accomplish common tasks in a consistent manner. The pre-developed code is organized into separate "
packages Package may refer to: Containers or Enclosures * Packaging and labeling, enclosing or protecting products * Mail, items larger than a letter * Chip package or chip carrier * Electronic packaging, in electrical engineering * Automotive package, ...
" which each contain a set of " classes". Each class contains numerous
methods Method ( grc, μέθοδος, methodos) literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In recent centuries it more often means a prescribed process for completing a task. It may refer to: *Scien ...
, which instruct a program or app to do a certain task. Software developers "became accustomed to using Java’s designations at the package, class, and method level". Oracle and Google (the defendant) tried to negotiate an agreement for Oracle to license Java to Google, which would have allowed Google to use Java in developing programs for mobile devices using the Android operating system. However, the two companies never reached an agreement. After negotiations failed, Google created its own programming platform, which was based on Java, and contained 37 copied Java packages as well as new packages developed by Google.


First trial

In 2010, Oracle sued Google for copyright infringement for the use of the 37 Java packages. The case was handled in
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, De ...
and assigned to Judge
William Alsup William Haskell Alsup (born June 27, 1945) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Early life and career Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Alsup received a Bachelor of ...
(who taught himself how to code computers). In the lawsuit, Oracle sought between $1.4 billion and $6.1 billion. In June 2011 the judge had to force Google through a judicial order to make public the details about Oracle's claim for damages. By the end of the first jury trial (the legal dispute would eventually go on to another trial) the arguments made by Oracle's attorneys focused on a Java function called "rangeCheck".
"The argument centered on a function called rangeCheck. Of all the lines of code that Oracle had tested—15 million in total—these were the only ones that were 'literally' copied. Every keystroke, a perfect duplicate." – ''The Verge'', 10/19/17
Although Google admitted to copying the packages, Judge Alsup found that none of the Java packages were covered under copyright protection, and therefore Google did not infringe.


First appeal

After the case was over, Oracle appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (750 F.3d 1339 (2014)). On May 9, 2014, the appeals court partially reversed Judge Alsup's decision, finding that Java APIs are copyrightable. API stands for "application programming interface" and are how different computer programs or apps communicate with each other. However, the appeals court also left open the possibility that Google might have a "
fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
" defense.


Supreme Court petition

On October 6, 2014, Google filed a petition to appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, but the Supreme Court denied the petition.


Second trial

The case was then returned to the U.S. District Court for another trial about Google's fair use defense. Oracle sought $9 billion in damages. In May 2016, the trial jury found that Google's use of Java's APIs was considered fair use.


Second appeal

In February 2017, Oracle filed another appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This time it was asking for a new trial because the District Court "repeatedly undermined Oracle's case", which Oracle argued led the jury to make the wrong decision. According to ZDNet, "For example, it raclesays the court wrongly bought Google's claim that Android was limited to smartphones while Java was for PCs, whereas Oracle contends that Java and Android both compete as platforms for smart TVs, cars, and wearables."


Discontinuation of OpenSolaris

On August 13, 2010, an internal Oracle memo leaked to the Internet cited plans for ending the OpenSolaris operating system project and community. With Oracle planning to develop Solaris only in a closed source fashion, OpenSolaris developers moved to the
Illumos Illumos (stylized as illumos) is a partly free and open-source Unix operating system. It is based on OpenSolaris, which was based on System V Release 4 (SVR4) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Illumos comprises a kernel, device ...
and OpenIndiana project, among others.


Discontinuation of OpenSSO

As Oracle completed their acquisition of Sun Microsystems in February 2010, they announced that OpenSSO would no longer be their strategic product. Shortly after, OpenSSO was forked to OpenAM. and will continue to be developed and supported by
ForgeRock ForgeRock, Inc. is a multinational identity and access management software company headquartered in San Francisco, U.S.A. with offices in Bristol, London, Grenoble, Vancouver (USA), Oslo, Munich, Paris, Sydney, and Singapore. The ForgeRock Ident ...
.


Mark Hurd as president

On September 6, 2010, Oracle announced that former Hewlett-Packard CEO
Mark Hurd Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation. He had previously served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, a ...
was to replace Charles Phillips, who resigned as Oracle co-president. In an official statement made by Larry Ellison, Phillips had previously expressed his desire to transition out of the company. Ellison had asked Phillips to stay on through the integration of Sun Microsystems Inc. In a separate statement regarding the transition, Ellison said "Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle. There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark." On September 7, 2010, HP announced a civil lawsuit against Mark Hurd "to protect HP's trade secrets", in response to Oracle hiring Hurd. On September 20, Oracle and HP published a joint press release announcing the resolution of the lawsuit on confidential terms and reaffirming commitment to long-term strategic partnership between the companies.


OpenOffice.org issue

A number of
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) an ...
developers formed The Document Foundation and received backing by Google, Novell, Red Hat, and Canonical, as well as some others, but were unable to get Oracle to donate the brand OpenOffice.org, causing a fork in the development of OpenOffice.org with the foundation now developing and promoting LibreOffice. Oracle expressed no interest in sponsoring the new project and asked the OpenOffice.org developers that started the project to resign from the company due to "conflicts of interest". On November 1, 2010, 33 of the OpenOffice.org developers gave their letters of resignation. On June 1, 2011, Oracle donated OpenOffice.org to the
Apache Software Foundation The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the A ...
.


HP and Oracle lawsuit

On June 15, 2011, HP filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Santa Clara, claiming that Oracle had breached an agreement to support the Itanium microprocessor used in HP's high-end enterprise servers. Oracle called the lawsuit "an abuse of the judicial process" and said that had it known
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
's
Léo Apotheker Léo Apotheker (born 18 September 1953) is a German business executive. He served briefly as the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from November 2010 until his dismissal in September 2011. He also served as co-chief executive officer o ...
was about to be hired as HP's new CEO, any support for HP's Itanium servers would not have been implied. On August 1, 2012, a California judge said in a tentative ruling that Oracle must continue porting its software at no cost until HP discontinues its sales of Itanium-based servers. HP was awarded $3 billion in damages against Oracle in 2016. HP argued Oracle's canceling support damaged HP's Itanium server brand. Oracle had announced that it would appeal both the decision and damages, but the decision stayed.


Foreign corrupt practices

On August 31, 2011, ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that Oracle was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for paying bribes to government officials in order to win business in Africa, in contravention of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applicable world ...
(FCPA). In September 2022, Oracle settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) without admitting or denying its findings, by agreeing to pay $23 million to settle the charges. The SEC announced that Oracle violated the FCPA between 2014 and 2019 when its subsidiaries in India, Turkey and UAE created slush funds to bribe foreign officials in order to win business.


GSA business bidding ban

On April 20, 2012, the US General Services Administration banned Oracle from the most popular portal for bidding on GSA contracts for undisclosed reasons. Oracle has previously used this portal for around four hundred million dollars a year in revenue. Oracle previously settled a lawsuit filed under the
False Claims Act The False Claims Act (FCA), also called the "Lincoln Law", is an American federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies (typically federal contractors) who defraud governmental programs. It is the federal government's primary litig ...
, which accused the company of overbilling the US government between 1998 and 2006. The 2011 settlement forced Oracle to pay $199.5 million to the General Services Administration.


U.S. TikTok's operations

On September 13, 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Oracle won a bidding war with other U.S.-based companies to take over social media company TikTok's operations in the United States following the company's pressure to forcibly be shut down by the Trump Administration. Oracle was described as a “trusted tech partner” by
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...
, suggesting the deal may not be as structured as an outright sale. On September 19, 2020, the Trump Administration approved of the sale of TikTok's US operations to Oracle " elaying— by one week — restrictions that were originally to take effect" on September 20 as indicated by the United States Department of Commerce. On February 10, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, the
Biden Administration Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...
would be backing off from banning TikTok and shelving the sale of TikTok indefinitely, as the U.S. Commerce Department began reviewing whether or not Trump's claims about TikTok can justify the attempts to ban it.


People

* Larry Ellison: executive chairman and CTO (since September 2014), co-founder of the company, previously CEO (1977–2014), previously chairman (1990–2004). He owns 36% of the company. *
Safra Catz Safra Ada Catz ( he, צפרא עדה כץ; born December 1, 1961) is an American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 20 ...
: CEO (since September 2014), previously co-president (since 2004) and CFO. In 2016, she was ranked tenth on '' Fortune's'' Most Powerful Women list. * Jeff Henley: vice chairman (since September 2014), previously chairman (2004–2014) and CFO (1991–2004). *
Mark Hurd Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation. He had previously served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, a ...
: former CEO (2014–2019), previously co-president (2010–2014). In 2007, Mark Hurd was ranked on ''Fortune''s list of the 25 Most Powerful People in Business. He died in 2019. * Charles Phillips: former co-president and director (2003–2010); replaced by
Mark Hurd Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation. He had previously served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, a ...
. *
Bob Miner Robert Nimrod Miner (December 23, 1941 – November 11, 1994) was an American businessman. He was the co-founder of Oracle Corporation and the producer of Oracle's relational database management system. From 1977 until 1992, Bob Miner led produ ...
: co-founder of the company and co-architect of Oracle Database. Led product design and development for Oracle Database (1977–1992). Spun off a technology group within Oracle in 1992. Oracle board member until 1993. He died in 1994. *
Ed Oates Edward A. Oates (born 1946) is an American businessman. He co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Bob Miner. Software Development Labs later became Oracle Corporation. Education and early employment Ed Oates ...
: co-founder of the company. Retired from Oracle in 1996. *
Umang Gupta Umang Gupta (August 3, 1949 – April 19, 2022) was an Indian-American entrepreneur and Silicon Valley, California, executive credited with writing the first business plan for Oracle Corporation. He was also the founder of enterprise software ...
: former vice president and general manager (1981–1984). Wrote the first business plan for the company. * Bruce Scott: The first hired employee (after the co-founders; employee number 4) at Oracle (then Software Development Laboratories). Scott served as the co-author and co-architect of the Oracle database up to Version 3. He left Oracle in 1982.


Offices

Oracle Corporation has its overall headquarters in Austin, Texas. Oracle has plans to build its largest office hub, with 8500 jobs, in Nashville within the next few decades. Oracle has a large office complex located on the
San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Al ...
in the Redwood Shores area of
Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a po ...
, adjacent to Belmont and near San Carlos Airport. This complex is located on the former site of Marine World/Africa USA, which moved from Redwood Shores to Vallejo in 1986. Oracle Corporation originally leased two buildings on the Oracle Parkway site, moving its finance and administration departments from the corporation's former headquarters on Davis Drive,
Belmont, California Belmont is a city in San Mateo County in the U.S. state of California. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the San Francisco Peninsula about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. Known for its wooded hills, views of the San Francisco ...
. Eventually, Oracle purchased the complex and constructed a further four main buildings. The distinctive Oracle Parkway buildings, nicknamed the Emerald City, served as sets for the futuristic headquarters of the fictional company "NorthAm Robotics" in the Robin Williams film '' Bicentennial Man'' (1999). The campus also represented the headquarters of
Cyberdyne Systems Cyberdyne may refer to: * Cyberdyne Inc., a Japanese company which sells a powered exoskeleton called HAL 5 (Hybrid Assistive Limb) *Cyberdyne (Cyber Dynamics Systems Corporation), a fictional corporation that created the Skynet system in the ''Ter ...
in the movie ''
Terminator Genisys ''Terminator Genisys'' is a 2015 American science fiction action film directed by Alan Taylor and written by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. Produced by Skydance Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is a reboot ...
'' (2015). File:Oracle Redwood City May 2011 001.jpg, 300 Oracle Parkway in Redwood Shores File:Oracle HQ3.jpg, Oracle Offices in Redwood Shores, with Oracle Plaza building in left foreground File:Oracle Conference Center, Oracle HQ.JPG, Oracle Conference Center in Redwood Shores File:Oracle Fountain (6532480).jpg, Fountain in the Oracle lake, Redwood Shores File:Oracle at Thames Valley Park.jpg, Oracle has a major business campus at Thames Valley Park in
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...
in England File:Oracle Aoyama Center 01.JPG, Oracle Aoyama Center Building, with Lexus International Gallery Aoyama File:OracleMarkham.JPG, Oracle in Markham, Ontario


Corporate structures

Oracle Corporation operates in multiple markets and has acquired several companies which formerly functioned autonomously. In some cases these provided the starting points for global business units (GBUs) targeting particular vertical markets. Oracle Corporation GBUs include: * Communications * Construction and engineering - formerly the Primavera GBU * Financial services * Food and Beverages * Health sciences * Hospitality * Retail * Utilities


Sponsorships

On October 20, 2006, the Golden State Warriors and the Oracle Corporation announced a 10-year agreement in which the Oakland Arena would become known as the
Oracle Arena An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ''o ...
. The agreement ended after the 2018-2019 NBA season when the Warriors relocated to the
Chase Center Chase Center is an indoor arena in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The building is the home venue for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and occasionally for the University of San ...
in San Francisco. Larry Ellison's sailing team competes as
Oracle Team USA Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Clu ...
. The team has won the
America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one fr ...
twice, in 2010 (as BMW Oracle Racing) and in 2013, despite being penalized for cheating.
Sean Tucker Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; anglic ...
's "Challenger II" stunt biplane is sponsored by Oracle and performs frequently at air shows around the US. In January 2019, the San Francisco Giants entered into a 20-year agreement to rename their stadium Oracle Park. From the 2022 Formula One season, Oracle signed a 5-year deal worth $500m to become title sponsors of Red Bull Racing. In 1994 and 1995, Oracle sponsored Benetton. It was revealed in July 2022 that NASCAR's Joe Gibbs Racing team tried to sign a sponsorship with Oracle after
Mars Inc. Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services, with US$40 billion in annual sales in 2021. Mars was ranked as the fourth-largest priva ...
would announce they would leave JGR after the 2022 season, but the deal reportedly fell through.


See also

*
List of acquisitions by Oracle This is a listing of Oracle Corporation's corporate acquisitions, including acquisitions of both companies and individual products. Oracle's version does not include value of the acquisition. See also :Sun Microsystems acquisitions (Sun was acq ...
*
Oracle Applications Oracle Applications comprise the applications software or business software of the Oracle Corporation both in the cloud and on-premises. The term refers to the non-database and non-middleware parts. The suite of applications includes enterprise res ...
* Oracle Certification Program * Oracle Clinical * Oracle Database *
Oracle Linux Oracle Linux (abbreviated OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red ...
* Oracle User Group *
Cover Oregon Cover Oregon was the health insurance marketplace for the U.S. state of Oregon, established as Oregon's implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Cover Oregon was intended to enable Oregonians and small businesses to purchase ...


References


Further reading

*


External links

* * {{coord, 37.5294, -122.265966, region:US-CA_type:landmark_scale:10000, format=dms, display=t 1977 establishments in California 1980s initial public offerings American companies established in 1977 Business software companies Cloud computing providers Companies based in Austin, Texas Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Computer companies established in 1977 Software companies established in 1977 Computer companies of the United States Computer storage companies Customer relationship management software companies Data companies Development software companies ERP software companies Linux companies Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Software companies based in Texas Supply chain software companies Software companies of the United States Cloud applications Business intelligence companies Human resource management software Larry Ellison