Oracle fights the lies with humor

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison used this morning's official launch of the combined Oracle|Peoplesoft to set the record straight on some of the rumour that have been going around about his database and enterprise application company.

"We are making offers to a lot more people [than was initially thought]. People thought we were going to lay off 16,000 of Peoplesoft's 11,500 employees. We had to lay off people twice just to get the numbers right. There is al kind of nonsensical stuff out there."

Oracle last Friday disclosed that it would fire 5,000 workers around the world.

Ellison seemed at ease and was joking a lot - even more than usual - with the audience and during a question and answer session with members of the media.

Ellison also had some good news for the town of Pleasanton, east of Silicon Valley, where Peoplesoft's headquarters are located. It was expected that the vast majority of the 5,000 lay-offs would be at the Peoplesoft office. But Ellison said that only "hundreds of lay-offs" were in Pleasanton.

"I've been emailing with the vice mayor of Pleasanton," he said. "[Oracle co-president] Safra Catz has been meeting with the mayor of Pleasanton. I get to email with the vice mayor, Safra gets to meet the mayor. That's how things go around here."

Safra Catz at this morning's event.

Ellison also came down hard on the alleged differences between Oracle's and Peoplesoft's corporate cultures, with Peoplesoft being perceived as the people friendly and Oracle as the corporate raider. "It's very interesting. The warm an fussy Craig Conway [former CEO of Peoplesoft], was one of the most aggressive sales executives in the history of Oracle. He led that warm and fussy organisation. I don't think that cultures are all that different. They worked very hard to build the best products they could, and so did we."