Now the two CEOs are pitted against one another. Not bad for a company that for many years sold only database software. Now there are kids down the street who want to take our lunch money. Oracle executives say their applications sales could double this fiscal year, and they are blunt in their desire to squash PeopleSoft. They're going to hit a wall in a couple quarters.
Most analysts see it differently.
That suggests more confidence in Conway than in Ellison. It also gives Conway farther to fall if he loses. Conway says optimism is justified because of PeopleSoft 8. The products, which went on sale in September, let a customer peer into a supplier's inventory using just a Web browser or let a manager dashing through the airport log on to a Web kiosk to approve a critical purchase. Conway admits that Oracle got a head start in touting the magic of the Internet in business software.