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Oracle
Company Profile

by Faulkner Staff

Copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00014985

Publication Date: 2109

Report Type: VENDOR

Preview

Oracle is one of the world’s leading software vendors and is consistently
ranked as the leading relational database management system vendor worldwide.
The company has expanded its product offerings in many areas including business
intelligence and customer relationship management. A decade ago, Oracle led a
tech industry consolidation movement with a flurry of acquisitions, capped with
its $7.4 billion deal to buy rival Sun Microsystems and its server, storage,
software, and services portfolio, a transaction that closed in 2010. Other
purchases include software rivals such as PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems,
middleware vendor BEA Systems, and cloud vendor NetSuite.

Report Contents:

• Fast Facts
• Related Reports
• Profile
• Strategy
• Product Lines
• Activity

Fast Facts

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Name: Oracle
Headquarters
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores, CA 94065 US
Tel: (650) 506-7000
Toll-Free: (800) 392-2999
Web: https://www.oracle.com/
Type of Vendor: Application, development, and database software provider
Founded: 1977
Service Areas: Global
Stock Symbol: ORCL (NASDAQ)

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Profile

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Oracle is one of the largest software companies in the world, providing
products and services that address all elements of corporate information technology (IT) environments
– application, platform and infrastructure
– and are available to customers either via cloud computing or on-premises deployment models. For customers opting for a cloud computing model, Oracle offers a wide range of services
in the three primary areas of the cloud: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service
(PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

In a landmark deal, in April 2009, Oracle agreed to acquire Sun
Microsystems for $7.4 billion. This merger closed in January 2010 and gave
Oracle access to Sun’s server hardware and software. Oracle also gained the open source MySQL database that Sun
bought in 2008.

With more than 430,000 customers and with
deployments across a wide variety of industries in more than 175 countries
around the globe, Oracle offers an optimized and fully integrated stack of
business hardware and software systems. Approximately 132,000 full-time workers
are employed by Oracle as of May 2021. 

The End of an Era

In September 2014, Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison decided to step down
from his CEO role and focus on his responsibilities as the company’s chief
technology officer. A pioneer in the mold of Bill Gates at Microsoft and Andy
Grove at Intel, Larry Ellison presided over an IT space that ranged from
mainframes to the cloud.

Mark
Hurd and
Safra Catz, co-presidents of Oracle at the time, were both named CEO to succeed
Ellison. Sadly, Hurd passed away in 2019. Catz remains CEO to this day, with the
remaining executive leadership team consisting of Dorian Daley as EVP and
general counsel, while Edward Screven serves as chief corporate architect.

History & Milestone Events

• 1977 – Lawrence Ellison, Robert Miner, and Edward Oates founded System Development
  Laboratories to create a relational database management system for minicomputers.

• 1979 – System Development Laboratories offered what it describes as the first commercial
  SQL relational database management system (RDBMS).

• 1982 – The company rebranded itself Oracle (the name of its first official project,
  which was for the CIA).

• 1986 – Oracle launched its initial public offering (IPO) and began targeting the
  government sector.

• 1997 – Oracle redesigned its database server and released Oracle8. In addition, the
  company’s applications package secured its position as one of the top four players in the ERP
  market. The company also established Network Computer to develop a software platform for
  information appliances such as Internet-enhanced cell phones, TVs, and game consoles.

• 1999 – The firm released the Oracle8i Internet database; Oracle8i Lite for
  mobile computing; and Oracle8i with Linux compatibility. Oracle also
  established a venture capital fund to stake firms creating products based on Oracle technology,
  and reported plans to re-establish its network computer division.

• 2001 – The company established itself as a leading Linux supporter, aligning with Red
  Hat to certify Red Hat Linux Advanced Server with Oracle 9i Release 2 under the Common
  Criteria for government computing.

• 2002 – Oracle introduced the first database available for 64-bit Linux with
  IPF.

• 2003 – Oracle launched its bid to acquire PeopleSoft.

• 2004 – Oracle defeated the Department of Justice’s bid to block its
  acquisition of PeopleSoft, which was followed by clearance from EU regulators. PeopleSoft’s board
  approved Oracle’s bid to acquire the company after an 18-month resistance.

• 2005 – Oracle finalized its acquisition of PeopleSoft for $26.50 per share, or $10.3
  billion, and then cut 5,000 jobs, or nine percent, from the total workforce of the combined
  Oracle-PeopleSoft. Oracle also announced the launch of Project Fusion, with the
  overall goal to integrate
  the applications from both vendors. Oracle went on to acquire retail software vendor Retek for
  $631 million; identity management company Oblix; privately-held retail software vendor
  ProfitLogic; in-memory database software company TimesTen; open source database technology vendor
  Innobase; a stake in Indian software vendor i-flex solutions; and TripleHop’s MatchPoint
  technology.

• 2006 – Oracle acquired CRM market leader Siebel Systems. Oracle also purchased Stellent;
  MetaSolv Software; SPL WorldGroup; 360Commerce; Temposoft; HotSip; Sleepycat Software; Net4Call;
  Portal Software; Demantra; Telephony@Work; and Sunopsis. The firm also increased its stake in
  i-flex Solutions. Oracle also divested the majority of OnTarget, a consultancy it gained via its
  Siebel purchase.
• 2007 – Oracle purchase BI and BPM software vendor Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion
  USD. Oracle also acquired data grid software provider Tangosol; online identity theft and fraud
  solutions provider Bharosa; PLM software vendor Agile Software; meter data management and energy
  solutions firm Lodestar; the intellectual property assets of AppForge; GRC controls management
  vendor LogicalApps; operational planning software vendor Interlace Systems; Netsure Telecom; and
  role management software vendor Bridgestream. In addition, Oracle increased its stake in i-flex
  Solutions to nearly 83 percent. Oracle launched an unsolicited $17 per share ($6.7 billion) bid to purchase BEA
  Systems, which was rejected. Oracle also filed suit against SAP, alleging that the German software
  company’s TomorrowNow subsidiary illegally accessed its copyrighted material in order to provide
  support services for users of Oracle’s PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel software solutions.
• 2008 – Oracle continued its strategic acquisitions. In
  January of 2008, it reached an agreement to acquire BEA Systems; the deal was approved by the European
  Commission in April of 2008. Oracle also purchased document capture firm Captovation,
  Global Knowledge Software, Skywire Software, and AdminServer.
• 2009 – Oracle agreed to acquire Sun Microsystems in April for $9.50 per
  share, or about $7.4 billion USD. The merger will give
  Oracle access to Sun’s extensive portfolio of server hardware, software,
  and open source platforms.
• 2014 – Larry Ellison relinquishes his CEO title to focus on
  the future of Oracle technology.

• 2016 – Oracle announced plans to acquire NetSuite for $109
  per share, or approximately $9.3 billion. This transaction is expected to
  further complement Oracle’s suite of cloud applications.

• 2017 – Oracle agreed to acquire Aconex for a purchase price
  of $1.2 billion. Aconex was a cloud-based solution managing team collaboration
  for construction projects.

• 2018 – The vendor announced it was purchasing DataScience.com, whose
  platform centralized data science tools, projects, and infrastructure. Oracle
  acquired Vocado, a provider of a cloud-based financial aid solution for higher
  education institutions, and Zenedge, which offers security for critical IT
  systems deployed via the cloud. Financial terms of these deals were not
  disclosed. Oracle plans acquisition of goBalto, a provider of cloud
  solutions that accelerate clinical trials by automating and streamlining the
  selection and set up of the best performing sites to conduct trials.

• 2019 – Oracle Signs a 20-year agreement with the San
  Francisco Giants baseball team to rename the organization’s stadium to Oracle
  Park.

• 2020 – Oracle moved from its long-time location in Redwood
  Shores, California, to a new headquarters in Texas. In the same year, Oracle
  joins with a coalition of other US-based companies in an attempt to acquire the
  US-based operations of social media platform TikTok. The move was designed to
  preserve the ability for the platform to operate in the US market, despite
  pressure from the Trump administration to push the China-based company out.
  Apparent regulatory indifference and a lack of follow-through from the Trump
  White House resulted in the deal quietly falling through.

• 2021 – Oracle expanded its portfolio of sports sponshorship
  deals, becoming the official sponsor of the Formula One World Championship, Red
  Bull Racing.

Strategy

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Oracle pursues several key strategies designed to help it stay competitive in the
global IT market. The company claims that it engineers hardware and
software to work together in the cloud and in the data center.

Acquisitions. A major part of Oracle’s business strategy is
to acquire complementary companies whose technology, Oracle predicts, will
significantly enhance its revenues. Oracle is unafraid to purchase other
companies and sees acquisitions as an opportunity to bolster its value, gain new
customers, and provide better innovations in technology. Marking its boldest
move yet in the M&A arena, in April 2009, Oracle agreed to acquire Sun
Microsystems for $7.4 billion USD. The landmark merger, which closed in January
2010, gave Oracle access to Sun’s server hardware and software, including two
key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris. In August 2016, Oracle announced
acquisition plans for NetSuite to tap into the cloud’s small- to medium-sized
business space.

Cloud. Oracle offers a fully integrated portfolio of
cloud offerings in three layers: Software as a Service (Saas), Platform as a
Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The vendor’s cloud
offerings are designed for rapid deployment, easy to maintain, cost-effective,
reliable, and standards-based. 

Customer Choice. Oracle says that by giving its customers options,
they can decide on their own when and how to deploy the vendor’s applications,
platforms, and technologies. By delivering flexible and wide-ranging application
deployment models, Oracle enables customers to better address their
individualized needs. 

R&D. Investing in technologies over the years gives Oracle the
opportunity to continuously enhance its portfolio of products and services.
Oracle spent $6.53 billion (FY2021), $6.07 billion (FY2020), $6.0 billion (FY 2019); $6.1 billion (FY 2018); and $6.2 billion
(FY 2017), respectively, in research and development over the past five years.

Businesses. Oracle has three key businesses, which are: 

1. Cloud and License – Includes Oracle Cloud Services offerings, cloud
   license and on-premise license offerings, and license support offerings. In
   FY 2021, the Support division of this segment represented 71 percent of total revenues
   while the License revenue totaled 13 percent.
2. Hardware – Consists of hardware products and related services. Eight percent of annual revenues for FY
   2021 were derived from this segment. 
3. Services – For FY 2021, the services division comprised eight percent
   of total revenues. 

Strengths

Product Expansion. One of Oracle’s major strengths lies in its
consistent ability to develop and expand its product offerings to clients
from different industries.

Software Leadership Recognition. Oracle is recognized by industry analysts as a leader in numerous software
categories.

Weaknesses

Differences of Opinion. In September 2018, Oracle’s president of
product development, Thomas Kurian, first took a leave of absence from the company
and then resigned, after bickering with co-founder Larry Ellison over the direction of its cloud
business. These details were reported by unidentified sources close to the
situation. Kurian wanted Oracle’s software to be available to run on public
clouds from Amazon and Microsoft, but Ellison was not in agreement. In November
2018, Kurian took over as CEO at Google Cloud. 

Massive Data Breach. Large-scale cyber breaches are fast becoming a
daily occurrence, and Oracle has been no exception. In 2016, a gang of Russian hackers
breached Oracle’s MICROS point-of-sale (PoS) payment card systems which were
installed in restaurants, bars, hotels, and stores. According to security
researcher Brian Krebs, who first reported on the breach, the MICROS support
portal was discovered to be tampered with due to malware and communicating with
a server connected to a well-known Russian cybercriminal entity. 

Lawsuit Against Ellison. Three members of Oracle’s board have given
their blessing to a lawsuit filed against two Oracle executives.
Shareholders of the Firemen’s Retirement System of St. Louis, a benefits
organization for firefighters and their families, are suing Oracle in regards to
a breach-of-duty that stems from the $9.3 billion NetSuite acquisition. The
shareholders approved the acquisition at a higher premium than what NetSuite had
been trading at. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison had helped set up NetSuite in the
1990s and was a NetSuite shareholder owning 40 percent of the company at the
time it was acquired. The Firemen’s Fund shareholders believe the breach-of-duty
case is worth billions of dollars and are seeking 10 figures in damages,
according to a report from Reuters. The three board members who wrote a letter
to Vice-Chancellor Sam Glasscock of Delaware Chancery Court in support of the
lawsuit deny any wrongdoing on the part of Oracle and are part of a Special
Litigation Committee (SLC). The original suit was filed against Oracle, Ellison,
and Safra Catz, Oracle’s CEO, but Vice-Chancellor Glasscock will not dismiss
charges against Ellison and Catz. Firemen’s Fund shareholders have dropped some
of the charges but are still suing Ellison and Catz. The SLC said in its letter
to Glasscock that a "settlement of the claims would be the best result for
Oracle."¹ It remains to be seen how this matter will play
out. 

Outlook

Cloudy Skies Ahead? Oracle has had a habit of snapping up competitors
and plunking down money for them. Consider it a strategy of sorts as previous
competing companies (i.e. PeopleSoft, RightNow, Siebel, BEA, and Sun – to name a
few) have been acquired and folded into Oracle’s portfolio. These companies
weren’t just fly-by-night providers, either as they were considered industry
leaders. However, it’s been said that Oracle won’t be able to use this strategic
plan to further its cloud applications. How would Oracle be able to make a play
for its cloud competition? Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are not for sale
and likely won’t be for years down the road. Plus, any one of these companies
would be able to fetch over $500 billion. One analyst wrote that Oracle needs to
"shore up higher order services if they have to compete with AWS (Amazon)
and Azure (Microsoft). They cannot just rely on their database service as the
path to cloud success and they need to compete with AWS on the breadth and depth
of higher order services."² Another analyst said he did
"not suggest customers will migrate away from Oracle across the board, but
we do think enterprises will increasingly look to downsize their reliance on
Oracle’s database technology, particularly for workloads migrating to the cloud
and for net new workloads."³ 

Regardless, Oracle is in no position to purchase any of its cloud competitors
and it remains beneath them in terms of services and the acquisition of cloud
customers. 

Rising Stars. Larry Ellison appears unconcerned that Oracle has some
products that are no longer in demand but the company "is focused on our
star products, and our star products are now driving our top line higher. You
have these very modern businesses… growing very rapidly, taking share, clear
#1s in the overall marketplace. And you have these other businesses that are
melting away, and we just don’t care," Ellison said in June 2019. These
"star products" include cloud applications, Autonomous Database, and
NetSuite.⁴ 

JEDI Contract. Oracle appealed a court ruling that cut the
company out of the Pentagon’s proposed cloud computing contract. The Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud contract was expected to be worth
$10 billion over a decade. In 2018, the Defense Department (DOD) decided
that only Microsoft and Amazon could meet its requirements and one of those
vendors would be selected in the future, leaving IBM and Oracle out of the
bidding process. Oracle then sued, claiming that the DOD’s usage of just one
vendor for the JEDI contract was illegal and argued that there was a conflict of
interest between the DOD and Amazon. A federal court dismissed Oracle’s suit in
July 2019 and one judge noted that Oracle could not meet specific criteria for
the JEDI contract laid out by the DOD – in this case, the FedRAMP Moderate
"Authorized" requirement.⁵ In a somewhat ironic turn of
events, given the millions of dollars likely spent on legal wrangling, the
pentagon eventually cancelled the entire contract, with no one securing the
promised $10 billion. The program is expected to eventually be replaced with a
new agreement dubbed "Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability."⁶

Product Lines

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Table 1 details Oracle’s major products.

Major Competitors

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com
• Dell: http://www.dell.com
• Dell EMC: https://www.dellemc.com
• Fujitsu: https://www.fujitsu.com
• Google: https://www.google.com/ 
  HP Enterprise: https://www.hpe.com/ 
  IBM: https://www.ibm.com
• Intel: https://www.intel.com
• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• SAP: https://www.sap.com/
• Workday: https://www.workday.com/

Activity

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Products and Services

Oracle introduced its
Dynamic Skills cloud-based application. This Fusion Cloud HCM
(Human Capital Management) software set is designed to provide
insight for managing staffers, including comprehensive skills
views that are powered by AI (artificial intelligence).

(06/23/2021)

Oracle added 13 new
“Always Free” services to the Oracle Cloud Free Tier. These
functions are designed to allow developers and operators to more
easily learn, test, and deploy workloads using Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure. Additional details regarding the services – which
complement existing Always Free Compute VMs (virtual
machines), Object Storage, Block Storage, Load Balancing,
Autonomous Data Warehouse, and Autonomous Transaction
Processing – are available
via the Oracle Web site.

(06/07/2021)

Oracle announced that
it made the OCI Ampere A1 Compute available via the Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure. This ARM-based computing offering – which is
designed to help users better take advantage of the technology –
includes tools, solutions, and support to fuel ARM-based
application development in the cloud.

(05/25/2021)

Oracle introduced new
advertising measurement and management updates for the Oracle
Advertising and Customer Experience software set. Updates
include new ad-measurement technology for 3D in-game
environments, for supporting impressions delivery and GIVT
(general invalid traffic) measurement for PC, mobile, and
Web-based gaming environments, in Oracle Moat Measurement.
The company also announced new subscription-management
elements that support features to gain more-clear pictures of
account health, with insight from finance, supply chain, and CX
applications.

(05/12/2021)

Oracle updated its
Analytics Cloud service. New features include explainable ML
(machine-learning), automated data preparation, text analytics,
affinity analysis, and graph and custom map analytics. Oracle
also unveiled a new Analytics mobile app for more easily finding
data.

(05/03/2021)

Oracle released
Enterprise Manager 13c Release 5. This update to its flagship
management product for the Oracle stack includes added support
for hyper-scale observability and management, full-stack
management, and support for Oracle Engineered Systems such as
Exadata, Database Appliance, Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance,
and Private Cloud Appliance.

(04/27/2021)

Oracle revealed that it
is making its GoldenGate technology available as an automated,
fully-managed, cloud-based service, via the Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure. GoldenGate was created to promote data
availability that is analyzable in real-time. The service
provides a real-time data fabric platform for designing,
executing, orchestrating, and monitoring data replication and
streaming data events.

(04/21/2021)

Oracle Financial Services introduced new financial service
offerings that run on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Offerings
include Supply Chain Finance, Liquidity Management, and Virtual
Account Management Cloud Services.

(04/06/2021)

Oracle launched new Cloud Lift Services for providing expanded access to technical tools and cloud engineering resources. The software can migrate workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

(03/31/2021)

Oracle announced
updated features for its Fusion Cloud Supply Chain &
Manufacturing software. Elements include support for production
scheduling, order management, procurement, maintenance work
requests, split / merge / translate services, IoT (Internet of
Things) asset monitoring and production, transportation
management, IoT fleet monitoring, digitally connected logistics,
and PLM (product lifecycle management) capabilities.

(03/24/2021)

Oracle updated its
Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse software set. New features
include new built-in data tools, ML (machine-learning) features
and services, property graph support and graph studio interfaces,
and seamless access to data lakes.

(03/17/2021)

Oracle rolled out its
Java 16 – or Oracle JDK 16 – update. This refresh includes 17
platform enhancements to improve developer productivity,
including finalized pattern-matching and records, language
enhancements, and a Packaging Tool to ship self-contained Java
applications.

(03/16/2021)

Oracle issued a round of
updates to the Cloud Customer Experience. The refreshes to
Oracle Sales, Service, and Marketing include, among other
features, new B2B (business-to-business selling, voice, and
communications; an actionable user interface with smart lists,
infolets, and advanced search capabilities; B2B service
capabilities, automated digital services, intuitive interfaces
and data, and loyalty and marketing options.

(02/10/2021)

Oracle unveiled the
Construction Intelligence Cloud Service. This suite of AI
(artificial intelligence) and analytics applications uses ML
(machine-learning) to continually analyze project data managed in
Oracle Construction and Engineering solutions, identifying
potential risk and inefficiency. Its first application – Oracle
Construction Intelligence Cloud Advisor – is now generally
available, with other applications to follow.

(02/10/2021)

Oracle released a
version of the Oracle Cloud Marketplace service specifically for
US government customers. This release empowers agencies to
automate deployment of certified solutions, directly on Oracle
Cloud Infrastructure. Oracle Cloud Marketplace offers a
centralized repository of enterprise applications that are
available in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Government Cloud.

(01/27/2021)

Oracle unveiled the
Database 21c. This new version of its converged database is
available on Oracle Cloud, and includes an “Always Free” tier of
Oracle Autonomous Database. The Database 21c contains more
than 200 new innovations, including immutable blockchain tables,
In-Database JavaScript, native JSON binary data type, AutoML for
in-database ML (machine-learning), and persistent memory store,
as well as enhancements for in-memory, graph processing
performance, sharding, multi-tenant, and security.

(01/13/2021)

Oracle announced that it is making its APEX low-code development platform available as a managed cloud-based service. This release will allow developers to more easily build data-driven enterprise applications.

(01/13/2021)

Oracle introduced a
cloud-native deployment of its Oracle Communications Order and
Service Management release. The solution gives service providers
enhanced visual and operational tools to more easily design and
manage order-fulfillment processes.

(01/12/2021)

Oracle has unveiled its new
cloud-based CX (customer experience) management solution for
the communications industry. The Digital Experience for
Communications suite offers a series of industry-specific
applications to “capture and analyze customer-interaction data
from front and back-office operations.” The service is designed
to help better understand unique customer purchasing behavior and
preferences in order to target them with more compelling offers.

(11/02/2020)

Oracle has unveiled the Cloud Observability and Management Platform. This release
provides management, diagnostic, and analytics services to
eliminate complexity, risk, and cost associated with fragmented,
multi-cloud and on-premise infrastructure management. The Oracle
Cloud Observability and Management Platform is available in
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

(10/06/2020)

Oracle disclosed a
series of updates to several of its popular software programs.
Refreshes have been announced for the Customer Data Platform,
as well as Fusion Cloud SCM, Fusion Cloud ERP, Fusion Cloud
EPM, and Fusion Cloud HCM. Additional details are
available via the Oracle Web site.

(09/29/2020)

Oracle has updated the Government
Cloud service with the addition of National Security Regions for
US Intelligence Community and Department of Defense customers.
Regions were developed to address needs at DISA Impact Level 6,
Secret and Top Secret security levels, with capabilities
including strong encryption, in-depth auditing, and robust
security controls.

(09/16/2020)

Oracle unveiled Java 15.
This JDK (Java Development Kit) delivers extended support for
Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm and Hidden Classes;
finalized preview features for supporting Text Blocks and ZGC;
Sealed Classes as a first-time preview feature; and second
previews of Pattern Matching and Records for additional community
feedback. More complete information is available via the Oracle Web site.

(09/15/2020)

Oracle announced general availability
for Cloud Guard and Maximum Security Zones. The releases
activate security policy enforcement of best practices,
automatically, to prevent misconfiguration errors and more
securely deploy workloads. Oracle Cloud Guard continuously
monitors configurations and activities to identify threats, then
automatically acts to remediate them across all Oracle Cloud
global regions. Maximum Security Zones, meanwhile, releases
activate security policy enforcement of best practices,
automatically, to prevent misconfiguration errors and more
securely deploy workloads.

(09/14/2020)

Alliances and Joint Ventures

Oracle updated an
existing MoU with the UK’s Crown Commercial Service. This
agreement – which includes a new commitment to enhance
Oracle’s Government Centre of Excellence – is designed to support
improved use of secure cloud tech. The Oracle Centre of
Excellence will provide additional support and technical
capabilities to help the UK government “make better use of Oracle
Cloud.”

(06/08/2021)

Oracle announced that
it has integrated Oracle Audiences within Amazon‘s DSP. This
integration is designed to provide advertisers with more
actionable insight regarding consumer behavior, in addition to
improving reach, relevancy, and brand equity.

(06/02/2021)

DISH Wireless
selected Oracle to provide a
SBA (service-based architecture) for its 5G core network in the
cloud. This deployment will allow network services to be more
rapidly incorporated into new applications by DISH, and will
support automated, intelligent configurations between network
functions.

(05/17/2021)

Oracle is working with
Oxford University to create a new Global Pathogen Analysis
System. This system integrates Oracle Cloud Infrastructure within
the school’s Scalable Pathogen Pipeline Platform, and will focus
on helping governments and medical communities to “identify and
act” on emerging COVID-19 variants. The initiative builds on the
work of a Wellcome Trust-funded consortium that includes Public
Health Wales, the University of Cardiff, and Public Health
England.

(05/17/2021)

Oracle is teaming with
The Trade Desk
to participate in Unified ID 2.0. This
non-commercial, soon-to-be open-source framework offers a “new
approach to identity” that preserves advertising value-exchange
while protecting consumer privacy. For its part, Oracle will
integrate the Oracle ID Graph connect data and reach desired
consumers across platforms and devices with relevancy and scale.

(05/13/2021)

Oracle and Mastercard
are launching an automated, end-to-end solution for helping
streamline the process of delivering economic assistance. The
joint offering will be available for government agencies,
nonprofits, and financial services firms, and works to determine
program eligibility, accurately distribute funds, and remove
inefficiencies and block fraud.

(02/04/2021)

Oracle and Zoom announced a series of integrations between the Oracle Fusion
Cloud Customer Experience portfolio and Zoom. The collaboration –
which is designed to help incorporate video into existing
processes and workflows – includes integration with Oracle
Eloqua, the CX Service, and CX Sales.

(09/29/2020)

Oracle has officially confirmed that it submitted a joint
proposal, alongside China’s ByteDance, to serve
as the “trusted technology partner” for ByteDance’s TikTok, a popular Chinese
video-sharing app. This agreement would presumably see TikTok’s
data, which is currently stored on Chinese servers, migrated to
Oracle’s cloud-based infrastructure. According to CNBC, the agreement will necessitate US regulatory approval in order to allow the app
to continue to be used by US consumers after President Trump’s
announced impending ban in August. This ban, unless something
officially goes down, is now set to take place on September 29th.
The news outlet noted that the parties have until November 12th
to finalize a deal, after which time TikTok will officially be
turned off for US users.

(09/14/2020)

Personnel and Organizational

Oracle opened the
Vinhedo Cloud region in Brazil. This deployment is designed to
support growing demand for cloud services in the country, and
will compliment an existing Sao Paulo region. The opening marks
Oracle’s 30th Cloud region, worldwide, with plans to hit 38 by
the end of 2021.

(05/12/2021)

Oracle opened a new
Cloud Region in Chile. This opening, which is the software
company’s 29th overall, is part of an “aggressive” plan to launch
38 Cloud regions by the end of 2021. The Cloud Region will
provide Latin American customers and partners with regional
access to Oracle Cloud services such as Autonomous Database,
Kubernetes, Cloud VMWare, Cloud Infrastructure,
and Cloud Applications services.

(12/16/2020)

Oracle has announced a
second-gen, dual-region government cloud for the public sector in
the UK. The region will offer services such as the Oracle
Autonomous Database, Kubernetes, Cloud VMware Solution, OCI
services, and Oracle Fusion Cloud applications.

(10/26/2020)

Oracle has announced a
second-gen, dual-region government cloud for the public sector in
the UK. The region will offer services such as the Oracle
Autonomous Database, Kubernetes, Cloud VMware Solution, OCI
services, and Oracle Fusion Cloud applications.

(10/26/2020)

Oracle has launched the first of
two planned second-gen Cloud regions in the UAE. The Dubai
Cloud region marks the availability of 26 Oracle Cloud Regions
worldwide, and is part of Oracle’s plan to host 36 regions by
July of 2021.

(10/01/2020)

Financials

Oracle logged 36
percent Y2Y earnings growth for the fiscal 2021 full-year period
ended May 31, 2021. Net income was $14 billion, or $4.55 per
share, compared to FY20 company profits of $10.1 billion, or
$3.08 per share. Revenues, meanwhile, totaled $40.5 billion,
marking 4 percent growth over fiscal 2020 sales of $39.1 billion.
By segment, both Cloud services and license support and Cloud
license and on-premise license revenue improved 5 percent Y2Y,
respectively, to $29 billion and $5.4 billion, while Hardware
fell 2 percent to $3.4 billion, and Services declined 3 percent
to $3 billion. Over the three-month period, Oracle’s earnings
were $4 billion, or $1.37 per share, marking 29 percent growth
over FY20Q4 profits of $3.1 billion, or $0.99 per share. Revenues
were $11.2 billion, up 8 percent from fiscal 2020 Q4 sales of
$10.4 billion. By-segment revenue included Cloud services and
license support, which increased 8 percent year-on-year to $7.4
billion; Cloud license and on-premise license, which grew 9
percent to $2.1 billion; Hardware, which fell 2 percent to $882
million; and Services, which improved 11 percent to $812 million.

(06/15/2021)

Oracle recorded 95
percent year-on-year earnings growth for the fiscal 2021 third
quarter ended February 28, 2021. This disparity was attributed to
a “one-time net tax benefit” of $2.3 billion related to “transfer
of certain assets between subsidiaries.” Quarterly profits were
$5 billion, or $1.68 per share, compared to a fiscal 2020 Q3 net
income of $2.6 billion, or $0.79 per share. Revenues, meanwhile,
were $10.1 billion. This amount marked a 3 percent Y2Y increase
over FY20Q3 sales of $10 billion. In terms of revenue by segment,
Cloud services and license support improved 5 percent to $7.3
billion; Cloud license and on-premise license grew 4 percent to
$1.3 billion; Hardware fell 4 percent to $820 million; and
Services declined 5 percent to $737 million.

(03/10/2021)

Oracle‘s net income
was up 6 percent year to year for the fiscal 2021 second quarter
ended November 30, 2020. Profits were $2.4 billion, or $0.80 per
share, compared to fiscal 2020 Q2 earnings of $2.3 billion, or
$0.69 per share. Revenues, meanwhile, were $9.8 billion, an
amount that is up by 2 percent from FY20Q2 sales of $9.6 billion.
By segment, Cloud Services and License Support revenue grew 4
percent Y2Y to $7.1 billion; Cloud and On-Premise License sales
fell 3 percent to $1.1 billion;; Hardware sales decreased 3
percent to $844 million; and Services revenue dropped off 7
percent to $752 million.

(12/14/2020)

Oracle logged a 5
percent year-on-year increase in net earnings for the fiscal 2021
first quarter ended August 31, 2020. Income totaled $2.3 billion,
or $0.72 per share, compared to fiscal 2020 Q1 profits of $2.1
billion, or $0.63 per share. Revenues, meanwhile, were $9.4
billion, an amount that is up by 2 percent from FY20Q1 sales of
$9.2 billion. By segment, Cloud services and license support
revenue grew 2 percent Y2Y to $6.9 billion, Cloud license and
on-premise license revenue increased 9 percent to $886 million,
Hardware revenue was a flat $720 million, and Services revenue
fell 8 percent to $720 million.

(09/14/2020)

Legal News

The US Supreme
Court has ruled in Google‘s
favor in its years-long legal battle with Oracle. The court ruled 6-2 in
favor of Google’s claim that it did not violate copyright law by
copying Java SE API components. The code in question has served
as a basic component of Google’s Android mobile operating system
since its inception. Google’s defense of its fair use has been
ongoing for the better part of a decade, with victories and
losses on both sides. This latest decision may finally exhaust
all of Oracle’s legal avenues for seeking compensation. Oracle’s
general counsel released a statement on the decision, saying
“[Google] stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a
monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why regulatory
authorities around the world and in the United States are
examining Google’s business practices.”

(04/05/2021)

Mozilla weighed in on a
recent US Supreme Court ruling regarding the “fair use” of
re-implementing API (application programming interface), a case
contested between Google
and Oracle. The court noted
that such practices should be allowed in cases where developers
are re-implementing it to “enable interoperability” or “allow
developers to use familiar commands.” In a
statement, Mozilla noted that it is “pleased that the
Supreme Court has reached this decision,” as it believes that
“copyright will no longer stand in the way of software developers
reimplementing APIs in socially, technologically, and
economically beneficial ways.”

(04/05/2021)

The US Supreme
Court has ruled in Google‘s
favor in its years-long legal battle with Oracle. The court ruled 6-2 in
favor of Google’s claim that it did not violate copyright law by
copying Java SE API components. The code in question has served
as a basic component of Google’s Android mobile operating system
since its inception. Google’s defense of its fair use has been
ongoing for the better part of a decade, with victories and
losses on both sides. This latest decision may finally exhaust
all of Oracle’s legal avenues for seeking compensation. Oracle’s
general counsel released a statement on the decision, saying
“[Google] stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a
monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why regulatory
authorities around the world and in the United States are
examining Google’s business practices.”

(04/05/2021)

Mozilla weighed in on a
recent US Supreme Court ruling regarding the “fair use” of
re-implementing API (application programming interface), a case
contested between Google
and Oracle. The court noted
that such practices should be allowed in cases where developers
are re-implementing it to “enable interoperability” or “allow
developers to use familiar commands.” In a
statement, Mozfilla noted that it is “pleased that the
Supreme Court has reached this decision,” as it believes that
“copyright will no longer stand in the way of software developers
reimplementing APIs in socially, technologically, and
economically beneficial ways.”

(04/05/2021)

Oracle has reported that it won its
ongoing case against the Office of Federal Contract Compliance
(OFCCP). The
company noted that an Department of Labor Administration Law
Judge found “no evidence of discrimination,” and that Oracle did
not engage in intentional compensation discrimination, prior pay
policies, or assignment, job classification, or steering
discrimination.

(09/22/2020)

Oracle noted that it
“decisively” won its Nevada
District Court case against Rimini Street. The
software company was favored in seven separate motions for
partial summary judgment, with the court claiming that “certain
past Rimini Street support practices infringed at least 17 Oracle
copyrights,” while certain new practices also having been found
to “continue to infringe Oracle’s copyrights.” The court also
dismissed various Rimini Street claims and defenses, essentially
stripping Rimini Street’s ability to claim damages.

(09/15/2020)

Regulatory

TikTok was granted
a temporary reprieve to continue its operations in the US.
According to Bloomberg, the popular
Chinese video-sharing app was not forced to shut down as planned
on November 13, 2020. Reportedly, the Department of Commerce
continues to evaluate the situation regarding owner ByteDance‘s proposal
to sell the operations to a US group led by Oracle and retailer Wal-mart.
The agency indicated that it would comply with a recent court
decision to stay the order by at least 30 days, noting in the federal register that
the ban “has been enjoined, and will not go into effect, pending
further legal developments.” According to Bloomberg, the Court of Appeals gave
ByteDance and US officials deadlines of December 14th and 28th,
respectively, to file documents. TikTok, CNBC noted, only last week requested information
from the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), citing an altogether lack of communication on
the matter. The popular app’s parent company originally came
under fire by President Trump’s administration over alleged
national security issues. Neither party has responded to the
story.

(11/16/2020)

President Donald Trump has reportedly approved a proposal by Oracle and retailer Wal-mart that would salvage
the popular TikTok
service in the US. This agreement – which must also be okayed by
its owner ByteDance and
Chinese officials – will see all data associated with TikTok’s US
users migrated to Oracle’s cloud-based service from Chinese
servers. TikTok was set to be banned in the US as of last week,
but was given a stay as US regulators investigated the proposal
to issue a formal nod. According to The New York Times,
Trump’s primary concern was ensuring that the deal “assuages
national security concerns.” Under the agreement, Oracle and
Wal-mart would own a 20 percent stake in TikTok Global, the NYT
noted, in effect “placing more equity in the service into the
hands of American companies and investors.” The news outlet also
claims that Trump previously said he would “not be satisfied”
with ByteDance retaining its majority stake, but that this
agreement’s “security will be 100 percent,” with US data using a
separate cloud from China’s TikTok. It has not been clarified as
to who would control the new entity. No terms were released,
although Trump did note that the deal would involve an
unspecified “$5 billion contribution toward education.”

(09/21/2020)

References

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¹ Alison Frankel. "Oracle Directors: Shareholders Can Go
Ahead with Billion-Dollar Derivative Suit." Reuters. August 19,
2019. 

² Krishnan Subramanian. "Taking Stock of Public Cloud
Vendors." Rishidot Research. January 2, 2018. 

³ Rodney Nelson. "Oracle’s Database Future Could Be
Dimming." Morningstar. January 3, 2018. 

⁴ Chris Murphy. "Larry Ellison: Oracle Is ‘Focused on Our
Star Products.’" Forbes. June 24, 2019. 

⁵ Stephanie Condon. "Oracle to Appeal Court Ruling on
Pentagon JEDI Cloud Contract." ZDNet. August 26, 2019. 

⁶ Laurie Finer and Amanda Macia. "Pentagon Cancels $10
Billion JEDI Cloud Contract." CNBC. July 6, 2021.

 

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