Oracle chairman Larry Ellison told a crowd of computing industry executives
in Australia this week that Netscape was dead, killed off by the predatory
practices of Microsoft Corporation and its free Web browser Internet
Explorer.
“The most innovative company in Silicon Valley has been completely
destroyed by Microsoft," said Ellison, seemingly oblivious to the fact that
his own company is based in Silicon Valley. “The most innovative company in
the computer industry in the last 10 years is dead. The merger with AOL
means [that] Netscape is gone. AOL is in a different business. It is not a
software company but [is rather] a media and a service company. AOL is not
interested in Netscape’s technology. It is only interested in Netcenter.”
"I am very disappointed that a company with such personality has been lost
to the industry," Ellison continued. "It is not quite as bad as Apple
committing suicide by firing Steve Jobs, but it does indicate a serious
problem.”
Ellison's comments were a response to a question from a Sun executive, who
asked the billionaire what he thought of the AOL buyout of Netscape.
Ellison also offered up an opinion on Java.
"My company will work with Sun to ensure that Java as an Internet standard
is kept pure and available to us all, as opposed to [Microsoft] Java that
works only on Windows,” he said