SiliconBeat

I may not always be the biggest fan of Oracle founder Larry Ellison when it comes to issues like executive pay. But I do appreciate his business savvy and ability to cut through the fog of marketing nonsense and get right to the heart of things. I thought about this when I read his remarks from his appearance at the Churchill Club with Ed Zander.

Ellison was asked about cloud computing, and Merc reporter Brandon Bailey wrote:

“Known for his strong ego and outspoken views, Ellison drew laughter when he ridiculed the industry trend known as “cloud computing,” saying as he has before that it’s nothing more than a faddish term for the established concept of computers linked by networks. “A cloud is water vapor,” he observed.

But what really struck me is that in his remarks this week, and other recent statements like the announcement of the configured Sun database product, that Ellison is actually going to do the unthinkable: He’s going to keep the hardware business.

This shocks me for a couple of reasons.

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While some companies are trimming the size of their boards in order to save costs, Seagate Technology expanded its board by two to 11 members earlier this month to accommodate the appointments of former Motorola chief executive Ed Zanders and McAfee’s current chief financial officer, Rocky Pimentel.

Zander, who stepped down as Read the rest of this entry »