Oracle CFO Leaves after Four Months of Service 152
An anonymous reader writes "Oracle's CFO and Co-President Greg Maffei has quit. He will be succeeded by Safra Catz, who has been with Oracle for a while, and it will be interesting to see how long she lasts. Before Maffei, Harry You was CFO for 9 months, and before him was Jeff Henley. What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle?"
Money (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Money (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Money (Score:2)
CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, Oracles obviously in the direst of direly dire straights....
I mean really rough times...
Yes, the shio is sinking!
I suspect Netcraft will confirm Oracles death any moment now.
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Insightful)
Not saying they are sinking, but don't just assume there not having issues. Everyone thought Enron was in good shape, until the very last minute.
Now we have Sarbanes Oxley, a good reason for CFO to not look the other way.
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, I my first thought was "Securities Fraud" but I don't know what is going on there well enough to know.
Now, it doesn't mean that the company is sinking, but I have absolutely no intention of purchasing any Oracle stock in the reasonable future.
Regarding Enron, a good part of the issue was Fastow, who was siphoning off all of Enron's solid investme
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:1)
I have to agree with you here. It does seem odd that one quits after 9 months, and then the next one lasts an even shorter amount of time... Doesnt look for Oricle.
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Oracle is getting SGI'ed? (Score:1, Troll)
It will be interesting to see if Oracle eventually goes the way of SGI, or if they manage to pull a Sun and revive themselves before
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Homogenous shops (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:3, Informative)
When the CFO leaves, it's usually because they think they're in a sinking ship.
No fooling, it is not a good sign. See NorTel .... when CFOs leave early it is not good. When they have been there awhile and get a better offier this is good.
So the question is how far will the stock drop... -0.28 (2.24%) for the day... bet more is to follow.
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:1)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:1)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
I think you do not.
If they fail to *grow* their stock will drop.
Under which standard a drop in market share equals death.
The most important theng to remember is that when their OS market share starts to drop they are in real trouble.
So it begins.
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:4, Informative)
I love Linux just as much as the next guy (and has been my only home desktop for 5 years), but unlike DEC & Sun, MSFT's revenue keeps on increasing at an incredible pace.
When they have flat (not declining, but flat) revenues for 3 straight years, then I'll believe that it's sinking.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=MSFT&annual [yahoo.com]
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT&annual [yahoo.com]
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=MSFT&annual [yahoo.com]
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
No, that's the point. Unlike MSFT, DEC actually was a sinking ship that, unlike IBM, was unable to adjust to the New World Order.
OP thinks that is sinking just like DEC was.
HP is probably sinking too, FWIW.
Thanks, Bob & Carly, for killing 2 great companies!!!
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Legal fears - criminal or civil
2) Another C-level guy that no one can stand
3) Company is tanking
My personal vote is for #2 and I suspect his initials are L.E.
2 cents,
Queen B
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:CFO Leaving is bad news. (Score:2)
P.S. Enjoyed you
One Word: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One Word: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:One Word: (Score:5, Funny)
No, no - they keep getting hired away by Hank Scorpio of Globex Corporation.
Re:One Word: (Score:2)
Scorpio!
He'll sting you with his dreams of power and wealth.
Beware of Scorpio!
His twisted twin obsessions are his plot to rule the world and his employees' health.
He'll welcome you into his lair like the nobleman welcomes his guest,
with free dental care and a stock plan that helps you invest!
So beware of his generous pensions plus three weeks paid vacation each year.
And on Fridays, in the lunch rooms, theres hot dogs and burgers and beer!
Yes, German beer!
In fac
Re:One Word: (Score:3, Interesting)
By strange coincidence, that episode aired exactly nine years ago today.
Liar (Score:2)
you still can.
Re:Liar (Score:2)
As could have you. You can find that link here [tv.com]. Dick.
Famous Last Words... (Score:1, Funny)
You're killing me, Larry!!!!!!!!!!
CFO shuffle? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:CFO shuffle? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ROFL ROFL ROFL LOLLERZ!!!111111ONEONECOS(0)ELEV (Score:2)
iPod shuffle [apple.com]
Notice the comparison to the packs of gum beside the first paragraph. Unfortunately they've removed it now, but one of the footnotes at the bottom of the page used to say, "Do not eat iPod shuffle."
Apparently in the UK it said do not chew [engadget.com] instead.
http [donoteatipodshuffle.com]
Re:CFO shuffle? (Score:1)
"They call me 'Sweetness', 'cuz I like to prance. Countin' the beans is like makin' romance!"
Not a good sign... (Score:4, Insightful)
Dirty Kitchen (Score:5, Funny)
Up close and personal with Biker Spike (Score:5, Insightful)
What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle?
Oh, nothing more than fear of doing jail time.
Seriously, after Tyco, WorldCom and Enron, a CFO that is asked to support accounting that might be considered questionable bears some serious risks (as they should). The compensation just does not justify the risk of jail time. At least not for your typical CFO.
Life at Oracle (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been consulting for Oracle for a couple years now and I'm not surprised by this. I get reorg'ed every three months at the minimum, I can't count the number of managers I've had since I've been working here - most know my name only by my expense reports. Every so often my cell phone rings and the voice on the other end says "Hi, I'm ****, your new manager." Why would it be any different in the adminisphere?
I've worked for companies big and small over the years and while the job has its good points, the constant turnover isn't one of them
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:5, Informative)
Oracle reorgs its stovepipes annually, and there are divisional and departmental reorgs that shake out for months at a time in the aftermath of the larger reorgs. It happens. No big deal.
Safra, I encountered once. Not.the.most.pleasant.experience.of.my.life.
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:2, Funny)
So give us the dirt on Safra, why wasn't it pleasant? I Googled for her picture. She looks cute.
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:2)
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:5, Interesting)
It sucked, bigtime. Though they did have a crazy amount of servers and a whole buttload of technology.
Everything was to be feared, however.
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:3, Funny)
"I left Oracle as a sysadmin after only 2 months on the job as a pole dancer."
I thought, "Woohoo
Then I realized I really have to ditch this job that I'm working so much at every week to the point that I'm starting to see things that just aren't there. Hafta wonder though
Re:Life at Oracle (Score:2)
Missed opportunities. (Score:1)
Old Microsoft Money Wizard (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Old Microsoft Money Wizard (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Whoa, that's two in a row! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Whoa, that's two in a row! (Score:1)
Even if Case was merely mediocre, Icahn would still want him out, since clearing out company founders with emotional ties to the company is a big investor's first step towards jerking it any which way he can to shake some more coin out of it.
Since Icahn's actions will probably increase the va
Re:Whoa, that's two in a row! (Score:2)
Guilt (Score:5, Interesting)
So my guess is that either the CFOs feel bad about selling incredibly overpriced products, or they just plain don't understand how the hell they can manage all these crazy contracts.
When Microsoft licensing is the low-cost alternative to your product, there is something terribly wrong.
Re:Guilt (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Guilt (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
Netezza [netezza.com]. From my brief experience with the product, I can say that it really does live up to their claim of 10-50 times the performance at half the cost. It is absolutely unsuitable for OLTP, but that's no surprise as it is designed for data warehousing with adhoc queries. Nothing else on the market comes close for the price or ease of use.
Bizgres [bizgres.org] looks like a clone of their architecture and it might be a competitor at some point. Tho
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
> of 10-50 times the performance at half the cost. It is absolutely unsuitable for OLTP, but that's no
> surprise as it is designed for data warehousing with adhoc queries. Nothing else on the market comes
> close for the price or ease of use.
> Bizgres looks like a clone of their architecture and it might be a competitor at some point. Though, it
> won't be nearly as easy to use. Having a
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
Netezza is a completely parallel architecture. The appliance is essentially a PC (the host) connected to a large number of disk drives that each have their own FPGA computer attached. The host runs a heavily modified version of PostgreSQL. Data is partitioned (hashed) across all disk drives (with mirroring for redundancy). There are essentially no indexes
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
> their own FPGA computer attached. The host runs a heavily modified version of PostgreSQL. Data is partitioned (hashed) across all disk drives
> (with mirroring for redundancy). There are essentially no indexes, at least how they work with traditional databases, though they do have
> some automatic indexing built into the hashing scheme. Queries ar
Re:Guilt (Score:3, Interesting)
Oracle can do amazing things. But with the money you need to spend on Oracle consultants, you could custom-write whatever you are buying from Oracle.
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
And of course, that would explain how Oracle became the #2 software company on the planet, and how their products are used in the most mission-critical applications all over the world. But hey, maybe the rest of the world is wrong, and you're right! It's possible.
Bigger does not mean better (Score:2)
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
Look at an Oracle or IBM shop. There's a salesman who calls on the executive management every quarter (at least) and usually at least a few vendor consultants or business partners on-site at the client. So when Joe IGS/Oracle Consultant hears about the new Foobar 3.0 project, he mentions it to his boss. Then, somehow, magically, the sales rep appears before the execs and knows exactly what they are going to want.
Not all mission c
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
God, building a bigger pile of shit than Lotus Notes will get you an automatic Nobel Prize in Biology. If you burn the stuff you could solve the world's energy problem which will also net you the Peace prize.
Re:Guilt (Score:2)
Re:Guilt (Score:1, Interesting)
No. (Score:1)
SQL Server and PostGres are at about the same level as far as sophistication goes. SQL Server wins in the ease of administration department, but lags flexibility and openness.
As far as "just being an SQL 92 RDBMS" running on a SMP (but single image system), all three systems are at the same level. (That means any ignoring any specific clustering/dev frameworks/warehousing stuff)
Re:No. (Score:2)
My understanding was they came out of the same Berkeley roots?
Nope. (Score:2)
Byzantine licensing (Score:3, Interesting)
I had fun when I bought an Oracle license for our developers, and got a follow-up call from a sales rep explaining why I hadn't actually bought a valid license. After I explained exactly how we were testing and considering deploying Oracle, he went into hilarious detail about how much the licenses we needed would cost. Actually, at first he just alluded to all the different aspects of licensing we needed to worr
Furry Me (Score:4, Funny)
There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere.
Error in article. (Score:5, Funny)
What? No I wasn't.
Larry (Score:5, Funny)
What else can you expect from Oracle? (Score:1, Redundant)
Because Larry Ellison is God. (Score:3, Funny)
Oracles CFO (Score:2, Funny)
Oracle CFO Leaves after Four Months of Service. (Score:5, Funny)
He must have finally gotten a database up and running.
As an Oracle employee, (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:As an Oracle employee, (Score:2)
It's Larry Ellison (Score:4, Funny)
A - God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison.
What's up (Score:1)
Measuring The Depth Of The Muck In Months. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, maybe it takes from four to nine months to shovel to the bottom of the accounting muck at Oracle. At that point, a CFO reaches the inescapable conclusion that they must either:
1. Issue a radical restatement of earnings for one or more previous quarters in their next financial report.
2. Commit perjury.
If the CEO and board disagree with the necessity of revising past financial statements, and the CFO doesn't feel like taking his chances with committing fraud (especially in the current post-scandel atmosphere), then it's time to shop for a new CFO. At the least, it will give the higher-ups a few more months to inconspicuously sell some stock while the next CFO's still busy shoveling.
What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle? (Score:2)
I'm not here to cause... (Score:2)
Re:Chief of Fucking Off (Score:1)
Re:Chief of Fucking Off (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Chief of Fucking Off (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like most of the programmers I've worked with over the years. Similar to the sysadmins too, however they download porn instead of looking for jobs.
Re:Chief of Fucking Off (Score:2)
Re:An inside perspective of Oracle (Score:1)