If anyone was expecting Mark Hurd, the former HP CEO who was forced out of that job and landed quickly as President of Oracle, to kick off the morning keynotes at Oracle OpenWorld with a “neener, neener, neener” for his former employer, you’ll be disappointed.
Instead, Hurd, a eloquent and charismatic speaker, took the stage to rally the troops for an Oracle lovefest. After nearly three hours of keynotes last night, featuring infomercial-like presentations from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and HP exec Ann Livermore, this crowd needed a pick-me-up.
Hurd’s message was simple: Oracle is big - and it makes things happen. He pointed to Oracle’s recent first quarter earnings report, which exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
“Oracle had a big Q1,” he said. “That gives the company the capacity to invest.”
He showed a chart of R&D investments over the years, now at $4 billion for fiscal 2011. Products like Exalogic and Fusion Apps are the result of previous years’ investments. Hurd asked:
What will Oracle OpenWorld look like in 2014, when that $4 billion starts to manifest itself into products? Combine that with the leadership position of the company and you’ve got a fantastic position.
Hurd made some introductory comments before handing the stage over to conference sponsor Fujitsu for a presentation about what it is doing in computing innovation. Hurd said he would return later this morning with product news.
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