Larry Ellison blows off Oracle OpenWorld crowd to watch America’s Cup | Hacker News Reader

Larry Ellison blows off Oracle OpenWorld crowd to watch America’s Cup

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44 pointsalexlitov32 comments

If you poured $300,000,000+ into the sport (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2011/11/15/larry-el...), and your team was on the verge of an epic comeback from being down 1 to 8, I think you'd probably do the same thing.

If you're into sailing it's a seriously exciting event. I can't really blame him.

And if you're a new zealander, this is an extremely painful event!

I'm pretty sure they planned it all, just to taunt us. We only need one win.

It's not over yet!

But presumably the schedules have been known for a long time, so he could have not scheduled a keynote to coincide with the race times.

Nope. The cup is in "overtime".

See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441483

Interesting. I guess it really depends on how much advance notice he gave that he was canceling the keynote.

The race was "scheduled" to end on the 21st or so. Weather and some technical considerations in the best of alot type racing is to blame. US will need 11 victories of 19 races. The cup was supposed to be best of 17.

I don't see that as a valid excuse. This indicates a lack of accountability.

This was rude and unprofessional. I wonder where dos he think the $300,000,000+ came if not from the people who buy and promote Oracle's products and who paid to listen o his keynote. He owes them, at least, a sincere apology.

I have been to OpenWorld once. I did attend the keynote, but I did not imagine that my employer paid my way specifically for that, and I would not have imagined that I was shirking my duty by attending it.

I see all of the "I would too" comments, but really it's a slap in the face for his customers. He owns Oracle, and he's obviously a fan of the America's Cup competition, perhaps he could have scheduled OpenWorld a bit later?

I'm sure all his customers understand, and they should be blowing off OpenWorld too for the short walk over to watch the races live.

Half his customers are (me included at one point ;)

Heck, if you migrated to Postgres you'd never have to attend another OpenWorld again!

Heck the moment Postgres supports SPARQL I might ;) also the moment I no longer need to vacuum would be a requirement. Actually postgres is the first choice, we chose Oracle when we need specific features not because we like spending money ;)

No one expected the America's Cup to continue this long. It was scheduled to end this past Saturday at the latest, but between the 2 points Oracle was penalized (meaning they have to win 11 instead of 9) and weather delays it's extended a lot longer than anyone thought it would.

Today the TV announcers were talking about how their realtors are trying to kick them out of their temporary apartments.

I believe the TV announcers said that this is now the longest running America's Cup since 1899.

Perhaps he could have scheduled OpenWorld later, but he's far more than a simple fan. Oracle has had a boat in the race since 2003 and Larry Ellison personally has been heavily involved in Oracle Racing in that time, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the team. It's far more than a hobby for him.

How is it a slap in the face? I doubt his one hour keynote would offer much information anyway.

Well now you have it. Even the company's CEO couldn't care about something called "Cloud Marketplace" and the "Oracle Cloud Database Service."

I hope Ellison gets so infatuated with other things that he runs his company into the ground. :)

Haters gonna hate...

Disliking Ellison is a legitimate sport, one with a larger American following than sailing (excluding temporary recent fans).

Biggest come back ever if they win. They were down 8-1! He's put so much money into it. I would too!

Does anything important/interesting ever happen at "Oracle OpenWorld"? If so, does it require Ellison's presence?

I doubt it. People who go to JavaOne/OpenWorld are going for the BoF or technical sessions, not to hear some CEO speak about their strategy. Usually when I go, I skip those keynotes because they're mostly devoid of any useful information.

I don't even like Larry Ellison, but I would do the same thing. Epic America's Cup, and he has invested so much into it...

I'm no fan of Ellison or Oracle but IMHO he's done so much for that company, I have a hard time chiding him for taking a little time off. Very poor timing I'll admit, but I wouldn't be holding my breath at an Oracle event just to hear Ellison speak on a product.

I would, too.

And nothing of value was lost.

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