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ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. Once something gets bought by them, you know it is done. Slowly, but surely. They perform a function akin to the

ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. Once something gets bought by them, you know it is done. Slowly, but surely. They perform a function akin to the maggots that destroy cadavers in nature. Part of the overall ecosystem. ORA stopped being a tech co a while ago, now it is a finance play. Use cash to buy a business for its locked in customers, gut it to squeeze max money out of it until last customer is gone. Rinse, repeat. Aurea does the same in mid-tier by the way. The circle of life...

xroche 9y ago
> ORA stopped being a tech co a while ago, now it is a finance play. Use cash to buy a business for its locked in customers, gut it to squeeze max money out of it until last customer is gone. Rinse, repeat. Yup. Precisely what happened to Stellent, a company that used to produce great document filters. After ORA buyout, employees fled like there was a plague epidemic and prices spiked at such a level that you'd either cut your veins or consider migrating to another technology. > ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. Well, except that some of the elephants were still alive and perfectly fine, and ora worms started eating them before they were dead.
- bbarn 9y ago
  Working on UCM Oracle for a consulting gig once was what I consider the low point of my career. I do believe that's the stellent product post-acquisition, right?
notacoward 9y ago
> ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. I think that's a more apt description of CA, BMC, or Symantec. Places where tired old software goes to die a quiet death. What Oracle does is worse: kill software that still has plenty of life in it. I've seen them do it by acquisition, and I've seen them do it by stealing code or ideas from partners (personally, twice). So they're not so much a graveyard as a slaughterhouse for software.
- dandare 9y ago
  I didn't know this when I joined CA. It took me 6 months to realize what I fell into - and I quit the next week. It felt like working in a hospice - most depressing few months of my professional life. Oh and don't forget to tell the truth in your next job interview: "CA is a tremendously successful company and excellent employer, unfortunately, the role was not the right fit for me".
riku_iki 9y ago
ORA just kills software with no market success. All companies do that. If you like solaris, you had an opportunity to make your vote using your wallet. I am actually surprised they invested into Solaris for so long, considering its long time half dead status on the market.
- cat199 9y ago
  Sure, if you ignore the massive effort that was being invested in revamping Solaris to be more FOSS friendly and engage with the community prior to oracle's sun takeover.. I suspect if the takeover hadn't happened, the FOSS systems landscape would look a whole lot different. Like what, I don't know, but definitely different.
  - SkyMarshal 9y ago
    Sun really needed to FOSS license Solaris before Linux hit critical mass. That would have been amazing. Linux is pretty good for what it is, but imagine if it had been Solaris that won instead of Linux, and thus running on most of the servers of the world and potentially iOS and Android as well. It might have even made some desktop inroads, given it would have launched out of the FOSS gate with a more developed desktop than Linux at the time. Such a huge missed opportunity.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - Tloewald 9y ago
      I doubt Apple or NeXT would have ported their platform to Solaris (from BSD/Mach). it seems to me that BSD would have been Linux if Linux hadn't happened.
      - madkangas 9y ago
        Actually, NeXT did just that. OPENSTEP ran on Mach, Solaris, HPUX, and (amazingly) Windows NT. It didn't make a difference for NeXT's market share. NeXT was acquired by Apple. 6 months later... Jobs was in charge, and history unfolded.
astrodust 9y ago
Is Oracle the new Computer Associates?
stephengillie 9y ago
CenturyLink does this too - they're a tech holding company who buys and sells companies (Level3, Tier3, Savvis, Cyxtera, Electricbox, etc) in order to reap M&A tax benefits while squeezing the engineers. Of course, these businesses don't make enough money to cover the massive shareholder draw, so it's all a stage play to convince Wells Fargo to loan them enough to pay those dividends. It's an untenable and irrational position in the long run, but markets can remain irrational longer than individuals can remain solvent. And many businesses are in this same situation, needing bank loans to pay never-reducing dividends.
- pm90 9y ago
  > order to reap M&A tax benefits while squeezing the engineers. This is true also of companies that are taken over by private equity firms, although that is probably common knowledge by now. e.g. every single one in my team at Rackspace has left for a different role (all at different companies, all at different times) after being acquired by PE firm. Sometimes I wonder how the engineers can't see this coming. Sure there are cost savings to be made by streamlining product offerings, cutting the "recreational budget" etc (i.e. money for office parties). But the biggest cost center for tech companies are its employees (probably that and real estate).
- walterbell 9y ago
  What's the M&A tax benefit? Do you mean tax-deductible interest payments on loans used to finance the purchase, as used by private equity?
sbinthree 9y ago
Same as OpenText, Consolation, etc.

xroche 9y ago

> ORA stopped being a tech co a while ago, now it is a finance play. Use cash to buy a business for its locked in customers, gut it to squeeze max money out of it until last customer is gone. Rinse, repeat. Yup. Precisely what happened to Stellent, a company that used to produce great document filters. After ORA buyout, employees fled like there was a plague epidemic and prices spiked at such a level that you'd either cut your veins or consider migrating to another technology. > ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. Well, except that some of the elephants were still alive and perfectly fine, and ora worms started eating them before they were dead.

bbarn 9y ago
Working on UCM Oracle for a consulting gig once was what I consider the low point of my career. I do believe that's the stellent product post-acquisition, right?

notacoward 9y ago

> ORA is the elephant's graveyard of software. I think that's a more apt description of CA, BMC, or Symantec. Places where tired old software goes to die a quiet death. What Oracle does is worse: kill software that still has plenty of life in it. I've seen them do it by acquisition, and I've seen them do it by stealing code or ideas from partners (personally, twice). So they're not so much a graveyard as a slaughterhouse for software.

dandare 9y ago
I didn't know this when I joined CA. It took me 6 months to realize what I fell into - and I quit the next week. It felt like working in a hospice - most depressing few months of my professional life. Oh and don't forget to tell the truth in your next job interview: "CA is a tremendously successful company and excellent employer, unfortunately, the role was not the right fit for me".

riku_iki 9y ago

ORA just kills software with no market success. All companies do that. If you like solaris, you had an opportunity to make your vote using your wallet. I am actually surprised they invested into Solaris for so long, considering its long time half dead status on the market.

cat199 9y ago
Sure, if you ignore the massive effort that was being invested in revamping Solaris to be more FOSS friendly and engage with the community prior to oracle's sun takeover.. I suspect if the takeover hadn't happened, the FOSS systems landscape would look a whole lot different. Like what, I don't know, but definitely different.
- SkyMarshal 9y ago
  Sun really needed to FOSS license Solaris before Linux hit critical mass. That would have been amazing. Linux is pretty good for what it is, but imagine if it had been Solaris that won instead of Linux, and thus running on most of the servers of the world and potentially iOS and Android as well. It might have even made some desktop inroads, given it would have launched out of the FOSS gate with a more developed desktop than Linux at the time. Such a huge missed opportunity.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Tloewald 9y ago
    I doubt Apple or NeXT would have ported their platform to Solaris (from BSD/Mach). it seems to me that BSD would have been Linux if Linux hadn't happened.
    - madkangas 9y ago
      Actually, NeXT did just that. OPENSTEP ran on Mach, Solaris, HPUX, and (amazingly) Windows NT. It didn't make a difference for NeXT's market share. NeXT was acquired by Apple. 6 months later... Jobs was in charge, and history unfolded.

astrodust 9y ago

Is Oracle the new Computer Associates?

stephengillie 9y ago

CenturyLink does this too - they're a tech holding company who buys and sells companies (Level3, Tier3, Savvis, Cyxtera, Electricbox, etc) in order to reap M&A tax benefits while squeezing the engineers. Of course, these businesses don't make enough money to cover the massive shareholder draw, so it's all a stage play to convince Wells Fargo to loan them enough to pay those dividends. It's an untenable and irrational position in the long run, but markets can remain irrational longer than individuals can remain solvent. And many businesses are in this same situation, needing bank loans to pay never-reducing dividends.

pm90 9y ago
> order to reap M&A tax benefits while squeezing the engineers. This is true also of companies that are taken over by private equity firms, although that is probably common knowledge by now. e.g. every single one in my team at Rackspace has left for a different role (all at different companies, all at different times) after being acquired by PE firm. Sometimes I wonder how the engineers can't see this coming. Sure there are cost savings to be made by streamlining product offerings, cutting the "recreational budget" etc (i.e. money for office parties). But the biggest cost center for tech companies are its employees (probably that and real estate).
walterbell 9y ago
What's the M&A tax benefit? Do you mean tax-deductible interest payments on loans used to finance the purchase, as used by private equity?

sbinthree 9y ago

Same as OpenText, Consolation, etc.