Should Eliison Buy Apple?
Background: Apple is in loads of trouble. They just fired 2700 employees and bought an operating system with no acceptance. Oracle CEO, Larry Elison, (One of the Top Ten Richest Men in America) is feeling the waters to see if buying the ailing Apple for a cool 1 Billion dollars. Ellison, who thought up the NetPC, and heavily backs Netscape, Sun, and IBM is a an avid Bill Gates Hater. This purchase would hurl Ellison up the level of Bill Gates and quite literally start an OS war. Ellison is also a long-time friend of Apple founder, Steve Jobs. Can the dynamic duo raise Apple to the majors and play ball with Microsoft? Should Ellison be the one to do it?
It all depends from who’s point of view.
From Ellison’s point of view, Yes.
Apple is at an all time low. Buy while they are in trouble.
From Apple’s point of View, No.
Ellison is a Meglomaniac and will lose vision of Apple’s true value.
From Netscape, Sun, IBM, And Every Bill Gate Hater, Yes.
Ellison will throw Apple into the whole Internet fray and lend weight to the cross platform issue and the anti-microsoft issue.
From Microsoft’s point of view, Not really but doesn’t matter all the much.
Microsoft is in trouble with Anti-Trust suits. Apple is the only thing that stands in the way of t otal desktop dominance. Microsoft needs Apple to avoid trust-busters.
From Mac User’s point of view, Mixed.
On the one hand, it will spur huge competition between Apple and Microsoft, which is good. On the other hand, Ellison doesn’t know dick about Operating Systems or the Apple core market, which is bad.
From Windows users point of view, Not especially.
For Windows users the only issue that matters is compatibility. If a mac machine can read a Windows disk, that is good. If not, bad.
So the tally is: 2 Yes, 3 No, 1 mixed.
The only real opinion though is Ellison’s and the Anti-Microsoft faction. They have the money and if they want to buy the Cupertino company, now is a good time. Cheap.
Whatya think?