Larry Ellison book reveals his loathing of Bill Gates

Reviewed by MARK FRYER


To New Zealanders, Larry Ellison is probably best-known as the flashy American who sojourned in Auckland last summer for as long as it took to miss out on a shot at the America's Cup.

To others he's one of the world's richest men. Second richest, ninth richest, even the richest by some calculations this year - gyrating share prices mean exact placings are largely a matter of timing.

Let's just say that anyone who can afford more than US$100 million ($154.48 million) for a house is seriously loaded.

Those with more of an interest in computing may know him as the arch-enemy of the man who usually heads the "world's-richest" lists - Microsoft's Bill Gates.

And real techno-heads will remember Ellison as the man who described the personal computer as a "ridiculous device" and predicted that many of its functions would soon be taken over by stripped-down budget-priced "network computers" connected to the internet - not a forecast that will go down in history for its accuracy.

All those versions of Ellison, and more, are described in Softwar, Matthew Symonds' not-quite-biography of the most outspoken man in the software business.

Not quite biography because it doesn't proceed in conventional fashion, from early days to the present. Instead, Softwar skips around - a road trip on Larry's private jet, some lessons in the software business, a little private life, "relaxing" on the Sydney to Hobart yacht race - in much the same way as Ellison's frenetic personal schedule.

Along the way there's enough conventional biography to make the point that, whatever his plentiful enemies say, Ellison created Oracle Corporation and worked his way up the rich lists by a combination of two qualities: brains and bravado - sheer gall might be a more accurate word for it.

He certainly didn't have it handed to him on a silver plate. Born out of wedlock to a 19-year-old mother, father unknown, he was raised by his mother's aunt in circumstances that were, if not poverty-stricken, certainly modest.

Far from being a star at school, Ellison dropped out of university but did acquire one useful skill along the way - the ability to program a computer.

It was more than just a way to make a buck. After years spent defying authority, Ellison had stumbled onto something where the only thing that mattered was your ability to get the job done. "I finally found my place in the world," he says.

That realisation eventually led to the creation of Oracle Corp, founded in 1977 to sell database software to business users.

In the 26 years since, Oracle has come in for plenty of criticism, often for sins which aren't exactly unique in the software business - promising too much, delivering too little and handing customers a monumental headache with every supposed upgrade.

At times the company has come close to death and its woes have often been blamed on Ellison himself - sometimes too hands off, too dictatorial, sometimes too "visionary" and not concerned enough with the nuts and bolts.

But Oracle is still there - it claims more than 40,000 employees - while many of the competitors which were once big names in the software business are long gone.

The one competitor that hasn't gone away is, of course, the colossus of Redmond, Washington - Microsoft. And, as Softwar makes abundantly clear, Ellison reserves a special place on his long list of enemies for Microsoft and its boss, Bill Gates.

When Microsoft was facing legal action over the alleged abuse of its monopoly power, Oracle even paid private detectives to root through its rival's trash, searching for incriminating documents.

Ellison's loathing for Gates and company is a curious thing.

Rationally, Ellison justifies it like this: "We pick our enemies very carefully. It helps us focus." He also criticises the "mediocrity" of Microsoft's software and its poor record for innovation.

"All those bright people up in Redmond remind me of the guys you see sitting in museums making beautiful copies of great art", says Ellison.

Although attacking Microsoft has won Ellison plenty of free publicity, one suspects that his obsession with overtaking it to become the world's biggest isn't just a matter of business strategy.

As Symonds says: "When people think of Ellison, it's all too often as a kind of alter ego to Bill Gates."

So Larry is rich, but Bill is richer (most of the time); Larry gives to charity but Bill gives more; Larry is more exciting - faster cars, super-yachts, beautiful girlfriends, funnier, better-looking - but Bill is still more famous, if only because virtually every personal computer owner in the world uses his software, while Larry sells to the business market.

Coming second is so galling. Not that Ellison has to do that too often (the Louis Vuitton Cup being a rare exception).

Even in his biography he gets the last word. One of features of Softwar is the line in the title: "with commentary by Larry Ellison". As Symonds tells it, he got to write the book but Ellison reserved the right to add footnotes, with neither able to change the other's words.

It might not have worked, but it does. The frequent asterisks point to "LE writes:" lines at the foot of the page where Ellison gets the chance to disagree, amplify, justify, brag and wisecrack.

One example: Describing Ellison's playboy reputation and his first encounter with one-time girlfriend Adelyn Lee, who later accused him of rape (he won, she was sentenced to jail for perjury), Symonds quotes Ellison thus: "I just couldn't figure out what it was that made her so different."

Ellison's footnote: "It took me a while but I finally figured out what it was: the woman was pure evil."

SOFTWAR

An intimate portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds (With commentary by Larry Ellison)

Published by Simon & Schuster