Oracle and Salesforce inked a major, nine-year-long deal this morning to combine their cloud computing offerings.
You can read the details here , but suffice to say that it's a major, major announcement: Oracle and Salesforce are bitter rivals in enterprise software, and collaboration of any kind stands in stark contrast to how the companies have treated each other in the past. (With considerable irritation, in case you were wondering.)
Reactions online are already pouring in, and it's mostly shock.
Ten of our favorites:
Offerpop Director of Content Marketing Jesse Noyes swears he just saw pigs fly:
Oracle & Salesforce to integrate "clouds". http://t.co/CtEbzrLwWQ #NowIveSeenEverything
— Jesse Noyes (@noyesjesse) June 25, 2013
Computer scientist Roni Leibovitch is just not buying it:
Unbelievable! Larry Ellison & @Benioff agree on something? #Salesforce http://t.co/L9vA7n9Y5O
— Roni (@macroneus) June 25, 2013
CRM consultant Mark Reuter just gives up:
I'll just go with it. | http://t.co/ZNFfYO8V7W and Oracle Announce New Strategic Partnership http://t.co/HspotEgklx
— Mark J Reuter (@markjreuter) June 25, 2013
Reuters reporter Jim Finkle is already shopping for a baby shower gift (we recommend a miniature yacht):
Shotgun wedding? Oracle, Salesforce PR won’t elaborate on cloud release. One short Tweet today from @benioff. None from @larryellison.
— Jim Finkle (@techwriterjim) June 25, 2013
IT director Dominic Sayers smells blood in the water:
This is Salesforce confirming it has abandoned the SME http://t.co/N8y7f1DI95
— Dominic Sayers (@dominicsayers) June 25, 2013
Meanwhile, Addvocate CEO (and former Salesforce-r) Marcus Nelson is thrilled:
This is great news for both companies! » @salesforce & @oracle Announce New Strategic Partnership http://t.co/APM9JnJ4kX #cloud #hcm #crm
— Marcus Nelson (@marcusnelson) June 25, 2013
Thomas Wailgum, a vice president at ASUG, the SAP customer organization, is waiting for a sign:
haven't seen much actual customer response to Oracle-Microsoft-Salesforce news, except use of the term "cloudwashing."
— thomas wailgum (@twailgum) June 25, 2013
Tech PR queen Brooke Hammerling thinks the whole thing is totes adorkable:
Adorbs. “Larry and I both agree that http://t.co/wsGx4JHM0Q & Oracle need to integrate our clouds..." #Oracle #Cloud http://t.co/Fwz6yZXvOy
— Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) June 25, 2013
Datacenter don Mark Thiele thinks Oracle's recent dealmaking is about as stable as a house full of The Bachelorette contestants:
Oracle & Microsoft http://t.co/8QUfGshW1z < cats and dogs living together total chaos. MSFT & Oracle, Salesforce & Oracle, what next
— Mark Thiele (@mthiele10) June 25, 2013
And finally, Wall Street Journal reporter Shira Ovide asks an extremely pertinent question:
Oracle getting cozy with frenemies. Salesforce is the latest. (Can Benioff and Ellison agree for 9 years?) http://t.co/YPuCi7bWZ0
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) June 25, 2013
A fair point: we wouldn't want to force them or anything.
Photo illustration inspired by this, of course.
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