OpenWorld 2011: Salesforce.com v Oracle smackdown

06.10.2011
The tit for tat going on between Oracle chief Larry Ellison and Salesforce.com's Mark Benioff has continued with Benioff sledging both Ellison and his push for mega appliances, instead of commodity hardware, to power the Cloud.

Speaking at a hastily put together alternative speech at a local San Francisco restaurant after Oracle allegedly cancelled his keynote speech at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, Benioff said Ellison was "all about aggressive moves" -- referring to the keynote cancellation -- but said he didn't hold a grudge.

"In my world this is just tennis. We hit the ball back and forward across the net. This is not personal," he said.

Benioff said that if he was being aggressive in running his speech at the same time as Ellison's locknote, he had simply learnt such behavior from Ellison.

"Larry taught me to be aggressive," he said, "[Salesforce.com] is aggressive hitting."

Benioff advised Ellison to refer back to Sun Tsu's Art of War -- beloved of warring CEOs for decades -- and its advice that Ellison should not have cancelled his speech and simply ignored Benioff's dissenting views.