Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch | Hacker News Reader

Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch

oracle.com

45 pointslladnar11 comments

I have no idea what the backstory is here but that press release is the most unprofessional thing I've seen in a while. Did a professional PR person write or vet that press release? If so, they should be fired.

Does Oracle do anything to make people like them or their products?

What is most interesting here is that Oracle published the financial deck that Autonomy gave to Oracle! OMG. I'm sure there was no NDA signed, but it's highly unprofessional.

Also, I'm stil not clear why there is anything wrong with Autonomy "shopping" itself around to get the best acquisition offer.

Autonomy is a public company, hence most of that data is probably already public -- I'm not an expert but at a glance I couldn't spot any particularly juicy "private" detail. These decks look mostly stock, good for any "introduction to my company" type of presentation... except for the very last slide, which shows a list of company valuations at various "Premium" share prices, i.e. clearly geared towards potential buyers.

I don't know why Ellison and Hurd are shooting this out right now, especially considering how their "Great Satan" Apotheker has already been fired. I wonder if they're trying to undermine Mike Lynch for some specific reason (like forcing Whitman to rethink HP's "enterprise software" move, which is a direct threat to Oracle, by dropping Autonomy), they're just doing it for fun (Apotheker is a long-standing enemy in Larry's eyes, first at SAP and then at HP, and he's been humiliated in any possible way), or they simply won't tolerate being called liars (which is hard to believe, considering the sort of sharks they are).

I guess Oracle isn't happy about HP trying to buy Autonomy, so they're trying to suggest that HP is paying too much, which could get HP shareholders to object to the deal.

And of course, HP and Oracle haven't been very friendly towards each other for a while now...

Aside from raising the price issue they have also (apparently) caught the Autonomy CEO in a lie. ...which would make me a bit uncomfortable if I was about to write a 10 billion dollar check. Makes me wonder why he lied and what else he lied about.

This is schoolyard stuff, but it doesn't matter. Being this way has always been Larry Ellison's M.O. and public opinion of the HP board is at an all time low. Many HP investors feel the Autonomy deal is overpriced and if Oracle can sow seeds of discontent torward a competitor further by pointing out they were shopped the same deal and passed on it due to price, they absolutely will, regardless of decorum.

The CEO of Autonomy likely didn't want his new (in flux, under fire) benefactors looking foolish or having buyer's remorse before the deal closed, but honesty is always the best policy.

There is another discussion thread regarding the same topic over here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3051730

I think this is more damaging for Oracle than any other player involved.

Airing out potentially confidential information just to spite someone reeks of immaturity. Very bad move on Oracle's part.

Was the information private? Autonomy is a public company, so a great deal of their financial information is public. (I haven't looked at the slide deck.)

This is an extremely childish and petty move.What possible good/profit/value can come out of behaving in such an immature way just to show up an ex-supplier? Sad...

You wanna bet that the fact that HP acquired them has something to do with it? Ever since Hurd got fired, Ellison and Oracle really ramped up the rhetoric.

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