According to the Financial Times[1], it's Microsoft-envy and close ties to Trump. “I still think it’s possible to beat Microsoft, believe it or not, for us to

According to the Financial Times[1], it's Microsoft-envy and close ties to Trump. “I still think it’s possible to beat Microsoft, believe it or not, for us to be a more important company than Microsoft,” Mr Ellison told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2014. Since then his nemesis in the software business has soared on the back of the booming cloud computing market, while Oracle’s fortunes have sagged. Oracle operates in the guts of large-scale IT systems, selling the databases and business applications that are core to the way large organisations run. But it has lost ground to Amazon, Microsoft and Google as corporate computing has moved to the cloud. The Oracle chairman has also kept close ties to the Trump administration that could pay off as the president looks for a quick resolution. Both Mr Ellison, who now serves as Oracle’s technology strategist, and Safra Catz, its chief executive, have been close to the Trump White House. Ms Catz was a member of the president’s transition team in 2016, while Mr Ellison recently hosted a fundraising dinner for the president. Oracle is also one of only three companies to have been granted more than one seat on the president’s task force to reopen the economy following the coronavirus lockdown — Mr Ellison and Ms Catz have been granted places. [1] Oracle’s Ellison steps out of character with approach for TikTok: Business and politics converge in pursuit of Chinese-owned video app’s US operations | Aug 19, 2020 https://www.ft.com/content/b32bf50c-2b8a-406c-97e6-4ffe4b56ef27 https://www.ft.com/content/b32bf50c-2b8a-406c-97e6-4ffe4b56e...