IBM CFO Tells Analysts Oracle Plus Sun Changes 'Nothing'

Asked during a quarterly presentation to financial analysts for his reaction to Sun's decision to be acquired by Oracle after discussions with IBM broke down, IBM CFO Mark Loughridge offered a mild variation of "fuhgeddaboudit" by saying that in the ongoing competition for CIOs' decisions and dollars, the Oracle-Sun combination changes "nothing."In a highly detailed presentation that underscored IBM's ongoing evolution away from hardware and toward its now-dominant businesses of software, services, and financing, Loughridge all but dismissed the competitive prospect of a combined Oracle-Sun entity, emphasizing that since 2000 IBM has sliced 14 points of share out of the hide of the Oracle-Sun-partnership:

As far as your question about the combination, Oracle and Sun have been partnering for two decades. And what's the result? The result is we've picked up 14 points of share since 2000 and now have 32 points. As I look at this and ask myself what has really changed I think,"nothing." We have been competing with Sun. We know Oracle inside out. They now have the same address and the same mailbox but we're talking about the same team that we've been competing against for some time and winning on the field.