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Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

Title:	DEC Rdb against the World

Moderator:	HERON::GODFRIND

Created:	Fri Jun 12 1987
Last Modified:	Thu Feb 23 1995
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1348
Total number of notes:	5438

935.0. "Oracle follows the others ?" by DATABS::DATABS::NEEDLEMAN (today nas/is, tomorrow...) Tue Jun 04 1991 21:55

    Oracle is the 3rd of the ISV database vendors to feel the $ pinch.
    Informix had to sell off pieces to a Japanese firm and to HP to stay
    alive, Ingres was completely bought by ASK and now Oracle appears to be
    selling a piece to Nippon Steel. It seems that my consultants fears of
    long term vendor viability are coming true. This can be a useful knock-
    off in favor of Rdb or a DEC supported ULTRIX/SQL. 

    Remember those paine webber reports...stress Digital's viability and
    buyability.
    
    Barry
               

	  "Oracle Systems to Get Infusion from Nippon Steel"
	  (The Wall Street Journal, 06/04/91)

Oracle Systems Corp. has agreed to team up with Nippon Steel Corp. in selling
its products in Japan in exchange for a $200 million cash infusion that could
give Nippon Steel a stake of as much as 9.8% in Oracle.  The pact calls for
Nippon Steel to get a 49% interest in Oracle's Japanese subsidiary, Oracle
Japan, which markets and distributes the database software company's products
in Japan.  Nippon Steel will also get $100 million of 10-year convertible
subordinated debentures with a 9% interest rate and $100 million of
convertible preferred stock that pays a 6% annual dividend.  The unusual
agreement with Nippon Steel, which has diversified into various computer
related businesses in recent years, comes at a time of financial difficulty
for Oracle.  Once a high-flyer, Oracle has lately posted disappointing results
and reported its first ever quarterly loss in September.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
935.1		DATABS::JOEDAD::NEEDLEMAN	today nas/is, tomorrow...	`Mon Jul 08 1991 19:16`	426
	here is some more data to help on $ FUD with Oracle Subj: CIS DELIVERS ... Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent to Form Financing to Oracle ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle ----- Source : Business Wire Date : 03-JUN-91 + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + \| Please be advised that the information contained within this \| + report is copyrighted material. The following policies must + \| be adhered to: \| + + \| - No reformatting of the data segments \| + - No external distribution + \| - Internal use only in accordance with vendor agreements \| + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + COPYRIGHT: Business Wire TABLE OF CONTENTS: Summary of Report (Supplied by CIS Editor) Terms of the Agreement The Japanese Market for Open Systems Oracle in Japan Financial Terms Oracle Nippon Steel Oracle Japan Products/Market Kanji Support Partnerships with Hardware Vendors Japanese Market Acceptance of Oracle ABSTRACT: Oracle Systems Corporation and Nippon Steel Corporation signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture to market and distribute Oracle's products in Japan. Under terms of the proposed joint venture, Nippon Steel will purchase an interest in Oracle Japan, Oracle's currently wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan. As part of the proposed transaction, Nippon Steel also will extend $200 million in long-term financing to Oracle. Section: 1 Terms of the Agreement Oracle Systems Corporation and Nippon Steel Corporation today signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture to market and distribute Oracle's products in Japan. Under terms of the proposed joint venture, Nippon Steel will purchase an interest in Oracle Japan, Oracle's currently wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan. As part of the proposed transaction, Nippon Steel also will extend $200 million in long-term financing to Oracle. ( 1 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- Section: 2 The Japanese Market for Open Systems "The Japanese market for open systems software is poised for extremely rapid growth during the 1990s and we are very pleased to have found a partner like Nippon Steel with the expertise, organization and resources to help build our business in Japan," said Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle's chairman and chief executive officer. "In addition, this agreement will improve Oracle's long-term capital structure." "Oracle has made a significant long-term commitment to the Japanese marketplace and we are prepared to provide the necessary resources to help assure market success," said Hidehiko Iwasaki, managing director of Nippon Steel. "We have more than 3,000 employees in our systems integration group and we envision that Oracle Japan and this organization will work closely together as part of this joint venture." "We believe that the partnership will accelerate our growth in Japan. Oracle Japan will provide Japanese customers with comprehensive solutions as they move toward developing open and distributed applications," said Chikara Sano, president of Oracle Japan. Section: 3 Oracle in Japan Oracle began licensing products in Japan in 1982. In 1990, Oracle activated its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan. Recently, Oracle was selected by the U.S. Department of Commerce as one of 20 companies to participate in the Japan Corporate Program (JCP), a program designed to assist U.S. firms in building their business presence in Japan over the course of the five-year program. Section: 4 Financial Terms Initially, Oracle and Nippon Steel will own 51 percent and 49 percent, respectively, of a partnership that will own the shares of Oracle Japan. Oracle's economic interest could increase to as much as 75 percent over time based on cumulative cash distributions from Oracle Japan. The financial terms of the proposed transaction also include a $200 million purchase by Nippon Steel of two new Oracle securities: -- $100 million of ten-year convertible subordinated debentures which pay a nine percent annual interest rate and are convertible into Oracle common stock at a price of $27.50 per share. One-third of the debentures mature in each of ( 2 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. -- $100 million of convertible preferred stock which pays a six percent annual dividend, and if converted to common stock offers a maximum total return (including the dividend) of 14 percent per annum. After four years, the preferred stock will be convertible into shares of Oracle common stock based on its share price at the time. For example, at the fourth anniversary of the offering, the preferred stock will be convertible into no more than $139.5 million of Oracle common stock. Therefore, if Oracle's stock price at the time were $27.50 per share, the number of shares issuable upon conversion would be approximately five million shares. Alternatively, if Oracle's common stock price at that time were $12.38 or below, the number of shares issuable upon conversion would be fixed at, and in no circumstances will exceed, 11.268 million shares. As of May 31, 1991, Oracle had approximately 137 million shares of common stock outstanding. Oracle has the right to redeem the preferred stock after four years, and if not converted to common, Nippon Steel has the option to receive cash repayment over five years beginning in 1997. Nippon Steel also would agree not to acquire additional shares of Oracle for at least ten years, subject to certain limited exceptions. Oracle and Nippon Steel anticipate finalizing this transaction within the next two to three months. The closing of the transaction is subject to the negotiation of definitive documentation, receipt of certain regulatory approvals, negotiation of amendments and extensions of Oracle's existing bank arrangements and approval of final agreements by the board of directors of each company. Oracle expects to use the proceeds of the transaction to reduce its bank credit facilities and for other general corporate purposes. Section: 5 Oracle Oracle Systems Corporation, headquartered in Redwood Shores, Calif., is the largest independent supplier of DBMS software and the third largest software and services company in the world. Oracle develops and markets an integrated line of software products for database management, computer-aided systems engineering (CASE), applications development, decision support and office automation, as well as families of financial and human resource applications. Oracle products are available on PCs, minicomputers and mainframes, and ORACLE is the first and only relational database to run on massively parallel supercomputers. The company offers its products, along with related consulting, education and ( 3 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- support services, in 92 countries around the world. Oracle is a publicly held corporation whose shares are traded on NASDAQ/NMS with the ticker symbol ORCL. For further information about Oracle, call Oracle corporate headquarters at 415/506-7000, or write to Oracle Systems Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065. Section: 6 Nippon Steel Nippon Steel is one of the largest independent industrial companies in Japan, with total revenues of 2,608 billion yen (approximately US $19.3 billion on an unconsolidated basis). Through its Electronics and Information Systems Division, Nippon Steel has developed a wide range of computer related businesses from large scale systems integration to the manufacturing of microprocessor-based computer systems. The Division is a major focus of Nippon Steel's strategic diversification plan and has already surpassed 100 billion yen (approximately US $740 million) annual revenue. Section: 7 Oracle Japan Contacts: Oracle Market Relations Gail Snider 415/506-5128 Lisa Gillespie 415/506-3002 Oracle Investor Relations Michael Musson 415/506-4041 History -- 1982: Oracle Corporation entered the Japanese market by appointing Digital Computer Limited (now Yokigawa Digital Computer) as local distributor. -- 1985: Oracle formed a Japanese subsidiary. -- 1985: Oracle launched a multi-million dollar research and development effort to localize Oracle products for the Japanese market. -- 1987: Oracle signed Distribution Agreement with Ashisuto, the leading distributor of American software packages in Japan. ( 4 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- -- 1990: Oracle hired Mr. Chikara Sano as president of Oracle Japan. Mr. Sano joined Oracle as president of Oracle Japan from IBM Japan where he had served in senior executive positions during his 27-year tenure. Oracle Selected By U.S. Government For Participation In The Japan Corporate Program -- 1990: Oracle was selected as one of twenty U.S. companies to participate in the Japan Corporate Program the U.S. Commerce Department's initiative to increase U.S. exports to Japan. The Program's charter is to help the selected companies penetrate businesses and government agencies in Japan. Oracle was the only software company chosen. -- 1991: U.S. Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher opened Oracle Japan's office on his recent visit as part of the Japan Corporate Program. Section: 8 Products/Market -- At $18 billion, the Japanese software market is already one-third the size of the U.S. market according to the American Electronics Association. The Japan Information Service Industry Association, a trade group, predicts that Japan's market will increase 150 percent, to $33 billion by 1995. -- Although the Japanese market is currently dominated by proprietary systems, Japan is showing signs of following the trend towards open systems computing. Significant Japanese hardware manufacturers such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC and Toshiba are strongly committed to UNIX technology. -- Oracle has 48 percent of the worldwide UNIX database software market, according to International Data Corporation. Section: 9 Kanji Support -- ORACLE supports kanji, one of the pictographic languages used in common by Chinese and Japanese. Kanji contains more than 4,000 common characters, each of which require twice as much memory as a Roman letter. -- Kanji versions of ORACLE have been shipping for DEC VAX since 1986, and for IBM MVS and various UNIX platforms since 1988. -- Japanese ORACLE currently runs on more than 30 different platforms. ( 5 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- Section: 10 Partnerships with Hardware Vendors -- Oracle has developed successful relationships with hardware vendors in Japan including: Fujitsu Hitachi NEC NTT Data Communications Systems Oki Electric Sanyo Electric Toshiba Yokogawa Digital Computer Section: 11 Japanese Market Acceptance of Oracle -- Oracle has penetrated the most prestigious and innovative companies in various Japanese industries including such Oracle users as: Automotive -- Nissan Motors -- Toyota Motors -- Mazda Motors Information Systems -- Fujitsu -- Hitachi -- NEC -- Toshiba -- NTT Data Communications Systems -- Nomura Research Institute -- Enicom Manufacturing -- Matsushita Electronics -- Yokogawa Electric -- Citizen Watch -- Sanyo Electric -- Seiko Epson -- Fuji-Xerox ( 6 ) ----- Oracle and Nippon Steel Announce Intent \| 03-JUN-91 \|C I S\| to Form Financing to Oracle \| Business Wire ----- Finance -- Mitsubishi Bank -- Tokyo Marine Insurance -- Sumitomo Life Insurance -- Daiichi Life Insurance -- Industrial Bank of Japan Foods -- Suntory -- Calpis -- Ajinomoto Pharmaceutical -- Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Airlines -- Japan Air Lines Energy -- Tokyo Electric Power -- Japan Gasoline Corporation -- The Oracle User Group in Tokyo currently has more than two hundred members. (c) Business Wire ( 7 )
935.2		DATABS::DATABS::NEEDLEMAN	today nas/is, tomorrow...	`Fri Jul 12 1991 16:29`	22
	Oracle Systems - Net fell 87% in fourth quarter on $20 million charge {The Wall Street Journal, 11-Jul-91, p. C8} Oracle posted a profit of $5.5 million for the period ended May 31, 1991, compared with a restated net of $41.7 million a year ago. Revenue fell 10% in the quarter to $287.1 million from a restated $318.4 million. The charge included about $9 million in costs related to the closing of excess facilities, a spokesman said. The rest of that amount involved writing off consulting and systems-integration contracts that were terminated. "We basically overexpanded," Michael Musson, director of investor relations at Oracle, said, "and when the recession hit, we had to retrench." For the fiscal year, the company posted a loss of $12.4 million, compared with restated earnings of $80.9 million in its fiscal 1990. Revenue rose 12% to $1.03 billion from a restated $916.4 million. David Bayer, an analyst with Montgomery Securities, and other Oracle watchers, expressed surprise at the $6 million drop from the preceding quarter in sales of the company's UNIX, a computer operating system that is ordinarily its strongest line. Mr. Musson, however, said UNIX sales seemed to fall mainly because third-quarter sales were abnormally high. Oracle also reported that it had signed a short-term agreement with its banking syndicate, which waives certain covenants through the end of August. It also negotiated a new long-term credit facility, which it hopes to have nailed down by the same time.
935.3	Oracle weasels out of Nippon deal	SWAM2::MCCARTHY_LA	Martians are stealing my underwear	`Tue Oct 01 1991 19:45`	121
	----- Oracle Forms New $100 Million Bank \|C I S\| Syndicate;Discussions With Nip ----- Source : Business Wire Date : 01-OCT-91 + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + \| Please be advised that the information contained within this \| + report is copyrighted material. The following policies must + \| be adhered to: \| + + \| - No reformatting of the data segments \| + - No external distribution + \| - Internal use only in accordance with vendor agreements \| + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oracle Corporation today announced that it entered into a one-year bank facility agreement providing for a syndicated revolving line of credit of $100 million. The syndicate, which replaces the existing bank facilities of the Company, will provide working capital for general corporate purposes. National Westminster Bank PLC (London), with Barclays Bank PLC (London) and The First National Bank of Boston as co-agents, arranged the newly formed group of eight domestic and international banks to provide support for the Company's worldwide operations. As previously announced, for the first quarter of fiscal 1992, ended August 31, 1991, the Company generated $46 million in positive cash flow which it attributed to strong cash collections and reduced operating and capital expenditures. This $46 million in cash flow, added to the $93 million generated in the second half of fiscal 1991, has enabled the company to reduce net debt (total debt less cash and cash equivalents) by 73 percent over the past three quarters to approximately $51 million as of August 31, 1991. Oracle also announced that it expects to continue discussions with Nippon Steel Corporation on its proposed joint venture in Japan and associated long-term financing. While both Oracle and Nippon Steel still desire to jointly exploit the rapidly growing UNIX and open systems market in Japan, Oracle's improved financial condition and recent discussions on product directions have led Oracle to pursue a modified relationship that would include substantially less long-term financing than previously announced. On June 3, 1991, Oracle and Nippon Steel Corporation signed a letter of intent for a proposed joint venture in Japan and $200 million in long-term financing to Oracle through the issuance of two new securities. -0- Note to Editors: Oracle Corporation, headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., is the largest supplier of DBMS software and the third largest software and services company in the world. ( 1 ) ----- Oracle Forms New $100 Million Bank \| 01-OCT-91 \|C I S\| Syndicate;Discussions With Nip \| Business Wire ----- Oracle develops and markets an integrated line of software products for database management, computer-aided systems engineering (CASE), applications development, decision support and office automation, as well as families of financial, manufacturing and human resource applications. Oracle products are available on PCs, minicomputers and mainframes, and ORACLE is the first and only open relational database to run on massively parallel supercomputers. The company offers its products, along with related consulting, education and support services, in 92 countries around the world. Oracle is a publicly held corporation whose shares are traded on NASDAQ/NMS with ticker symbol ORCL. For further information about Oracle, call Oracle Investor Relations at (415) 506-4300, or write to Oracle Corporation Investor Relations, Box 659506, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. ( 2 )
935.4	nippon steel	DATABS::DATABS::NEEDLEMAN	today nas/is, tomorrow...	`Fri Dec 13 1991 14:51`	22
	Oracle - Signs long-expects pact with Nippon Steel {The Wall Street Journal, 11-Dec-91, p. B10} Nippon will sell Oracle products in Japan in return for $80 million in financing. The cash infusion is much smaller than the $200 million Oracle had originally expected last June, when the two companies signed a letter of intent. Improved financial prospects prompted Oracle to seek a slimmer financing package, the company said. The terms of the agreement are far more favorable to Oracle than the original pact. The final deal doesn't allow Nippon Steel to obtain an equity stake in Oracle. The earlier proposal would have given Nippon Steel as much as a 9.8% stake. However, the deal enables Nippon Steel to command as much as a 25% stake in Oracle Japan. The original plan gave Nippon Steel a 49% interest in the company. Nippon Steel also will get a non-exclusive license to distribute Oracle products through its systems integration services division. Under terms of the agreement, Nippon Steel has warrant rights to buy up to a fourth of Oracle Japan. The exercise price of these warrants will be based on a $400 million valuation of Oracle Japan, as long as Nippon Steel buys shares within 2 1/2 years after the closing. Nippon Steel agreed not to exceed 25% ownership in Oracle Japan and not to buy additional shares in Oracle Systems. The $80 million finance package is in the form of subordinated debt, maturing in seven years, subject to a one-time call option.