back to article Oracle accuses Autonomy chief of telling 'whopper'

Autonomy boss Mike Lynch has continued to deny trying to flog his company to Oracle before the recent controversial deal with HP - despite the database giant's blunt claims that he is telling "whoppers". Lynch was responding to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's previous remarks to the effect that Autonomy was shopped to Oracle before …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why does Oracle care so much?

    Those decks are hardly a smoking gun. The content looks like the bog standard corporate presentation that would be shown to any potential large customer. The disclaimer page is standard legalese that is almost certainly part of the presentation template, and even if it doesn't apply here the lawyers won't let you take it out.

    The real question here is, why does Oracle care so much?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      in case your question is not rhetorical

      Oracle want to scupper the deal with HP either because they just want to piss on HP's chips (Itanium or otherwise, ho-ho) or because they want to scare HP off so Oracle can make a new bid at a price nearer to what they think Autonomy is worth - Larry likes a bargain after all.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Aquisition

      Rubbish the credibility of the CEO, wrek the sale - hopefully the share price will drop. Buy the company for a lower price, sack the CEO, celebrate victory.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this it?

    Is this what you do when there's nothing new to sell, last decade's chips to flog, and ever increasing licensing and maintenance fees to push on your user base ?

    I guess you could install all your guff onto some commodity linux box and push it as some kind of self managing appliance to the unsuspecting...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Powerpoint?

    PowerPoint slide sales pitch? He could have least used Oracle Open Office (RIP) - Know your audience!

  4. John Rose

    I've never understood what Autonomy actually does. Their web site is a touch opaque. The first presentation of theirs that Oracle made to them seems to have the same characteristic. Canb anybody enlighten me as as to how they add value to companies?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      if you really want to know http://www.autonomy.com/content/Autonomy/FAQ/index.en.html gives the overview. Personally I'm glad I no longer have to deal with their employees - never come across such a bunch of arrogant people.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Lynch ...

      is a Bayesian stats whiz and I think Autonomy started out selling enterprise software to analyse data to spot "interesting stuff" trending in the data. I think there is a security/espionage angle to it as well which may explain the opaque corporate persona. I seem to remember some link with the DoHS/USGov as well but I may be imagining that.

      The most recent interview I heard with Lynch (before all the takeover stuff) was a radio 4 business thing ("the Bottom Line" presented, appropriately enough, by Evan Davis) and he was talking about Autonomy's mobile app software which was to do with image/location analysis and simulation - certainly more consumer-friendly than the secret squirrel stuff.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @John Rose

      Haha, my thoughts exactly - I've always said it, but I work in the IT industry, and I'm confused as to how a company the size of Autonomy (and a supposed darling of the UK software industry), can have managed to pass me by. The first time I ever even saw their logo was on an F1 car.

  5. Ru
    Facepalm

    Qatalyst, eh?

    I hope they use authentic arabic pronounciation. Khkhhhkhkhk.

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Holmes

      "company sale banker Frank Quattrone of Qatalyst Partners"

      I'd have written that backgrounding sentence as "... of Credit Suisse's IPO-fraud fame", but then I guess that's why TheRegister are the professionals.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    date modified

    hmm- seems someone made a few edits to the slides at 05:11 this morning.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The disclaimer on the last slide also says..

    "These materials have not been prepared with a view toward public disclosure under state or federal securities laws or otherwise, are intended for the benefit and use of the Company, and may not be reproduced, disseminated, quoted, summarized or referred to, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Qatalyst."

    Obviously Oracle don't think they have to worry about such things as confidential disclosure etc...

    Hoenstly the pettiness of Oracle on anything even slightly relating to HP is quite unbeleivable - you have to think a lot of this comes from Hurd

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I've never understood what Autonomy actually does. "

    Ditto, and I've been watching occasionally for a *very* long time (in IT/dotcon terms).

    Meanwhile, what exactly is the state of HP's bid for Autonomy?

    Last I heard, despite the HP offer being far above Autonomy's market value at the time, the HP bid had reached its closing date without enough acceptances.

    Or something like that.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The real question here is, why does Oracle care so much?"

    Mark Hurd's name mean anything to you?

  10. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    "Is Mr Kettle in the house?"

    "Mr Kettle? Anyone? I have a call from Mr Pot on hold, something about 'Waaah, waaah, waaah'?"

  11. josephmartins

    Let He Who Would Not Set The Record Straight Cast The First Stone

    Every single one of the "Anonymous Coward" posts here are quite possibly from the same individual. One might ask why that individual "cares so much" too. Obviously the news struck at least one individual's chord.

    The reality is that anyone who becomes aware of a lie that involves their name or the name of anyone close to them would very likely jump at any opportunity to set the record straight. Good or bad, it's the way most human beings behave. One can only imagine how the average person would behave if the lie was made in a public forum before an untold number of listeners.

    Whatever Oracle's motivation, the company set the record straight. Clearly someone at Oracle felt Lynch would have no case for criminal libel--in short that their information and account of events is accurate and true.

    The "real" question is not "why does Oracle care so much?" any more than it is "why would you care so much if the same was done to you?" The only question here is how will customers and prospects react to information that, at first glance, paints a picture of a chief executive that has absolutely no issue with lying to the masses in a public forum?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Every single one of the "Anonymous Coward" posts here are quite possibly from the same individual."

    So what? I am the AC with two posts (one I initially forgot) at 13:23. I am not anyone else, and you do not need to know or care who I am, but you do need to address the message and not the messenger.

    I'm informed by Google News that the offer period has been extended to October 3rd.

    Meanwhile, is it just me, or does Lynch have trouble with the concept of "understanding" ? Lynch said "“You have a whole new model, about the stuff being managed in place and understood where it is,” ".

    Autonomy doesn't *understand* unstructured text. It might be able to identify what a piece of text is about, but it cannot meaningfully understand it.

    And Lynch clearly has a lot more faith in the capability of HP's enterprise sales folks than most of HP's enterprise customers do. Still, he stands to make a few bob if all goes well.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wanna say hmmm

    I could care less, but it is not worth the effort.

  14. Allison Park
    FAIL

    So much for the Oracle HP feud being over

    I thought the firing of Leo would have left some air out of that balloon

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