ShadowRAM: July 12, 2004

The Oracle CEO was the picture of confidence recently at the antitrust trial that will determine the fate of whether Oracle can have its cake and PeopleSoft, too. Striding into the courtroom amid a phalanx of gray-clad lawyers and aides-de-camp (that's French for flacks), the suited-up Larry immediately grabbed a bottle of water sitting on the DOJ attorneys' table. And what was the reaction of the government's legal eagles? Did they ask Lare for the bottle back? Pitch a fit? Nope. They quietly replaced it.

As for the trial itself, it looks like one of those rare antitrust cases the government could lose. If Judge Vaughn Walker says Oracle can proceed--he's expected to rule in early August--Oracle can take its $7.7 billion bid to PeopleSoft shareholders. Oracle Co-President Safra Catz noted that one of Oracle's first official acts would be to cut 6,000 PeopleSoft jobs.

EVault last week tapped current board member and channel legend Linwood "Chip" Lacy as its new chairman. Lacy says EVault is in great shape and is about to raise additional funding to pursue new opportunities and is even looking at hiring a channel chief. Lacy, by the way, was on vacation fishing at the the time of the EVault announcement. So were the fish biting? "We were fishing, we weren't catching," said Lacy.

The progression of Microsoft partner conference monikers reads like a narrative. Last year's confab was Momentum. This year's is Velocity. Let's see: Momentum. Velocity. What's next? Kaboom?

The event comes on the heels of Ballmer's latest internal memo (one of the worst-kept secrets in the biz) outlining Microsoft's challenges and goals and defending the cost-cutting that has impacted employee benefits. One insider said Ballmer's meeting on what was in the memo was memorable for the iciness with which employees treated HR head Ken DiPietro. When Ballmer conceded the benefit cuts could have been "better communicated," there was a round of applause.

One software player says Microsoft is starting to look a lot like the old "entitled" Lotus. "You know you're going downhill when employees obsess about benefits while business itself is falling," the insider noted. Perfect example: In the early '90s, when Lotus 1-2-3 was under siege by Excel, then Office, few insiders seemed to care. But when the company took away the free juice, there was a revolt.

Techies wanting street cred should check out www.asksnoop.com and insert a URL of choice for "shizzolation." Suffice it to say, Snoop's translation of Microsoft is "Microshizzle." You gotta love it.