No need for a Fake Marc Fleury
JBoss' former CEO takes advantage of Oracle's offer to buy BEA Systems as an opportunity to needle BEA boss Alfred Chuang.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
First came Fake Steve Jobs. Next were a host knockoffs, including Fake Steve Ballmer, Fake Bill Gates, Fake Jonathan Schwartz, Fake Scott McNealy and Fake Larry Ellison.
But with the feisty language of Marc Fleury, who retired from JBoss after Red Hat acquired the company he founded and formerly led, there's no need for a fake.
Fleury no longer has an open-source Java server software company to run, but he hasn't disengaged from the industry. Look no further than Fleury's post about Oracle's $6.66 billion offer this week to acquire BEA Systems.
BEA Chief Executive Alfred Chuang, he said, "probably already super-glued his naked chest to the BEA boardroom table. It is going to get nasty and he will be dragged out kicking and screaming. Alfred will mumble something about not wanting to be Larry's PowerPoint bitch, or waxing his boat, or some other nonsense. But Larry is going to make sushi of that board and will feed it to the koi fish he has in his compound."
It gave me a chuckle, though as with Fake Steve Jobs, Real Marc Fleury has recycled some turns of phrase, as is the case with the PowerPoint reference.
It's not all fun and games. Fleury has a reasonable analysis of the Oracle offer, which by the way BEA rejected as too low.
It's not the first time Fluery has razzed his rivals. He dissed Chuang "the Merciless" earlier this month after the BEA exec's remark that "I am not ready to be a DJ," an apparent jab at Fleury's post-JBoss musical interests.
Fleury's riposte: "You just keep monetizing that maintenance stream, Alfred. Even if your latest achievement is vying for the software industry's 'refusal to go gently into the good night' awards, I am very proud that I got under your skin."
And in August, Fleury tangled with Cameron Purdy, the CEO of Tangosol until Oracle's acquisition in March. Purdy posted a blog entry addressed to Fleury that said he's enjoying his active career at Oracle and closed with the words, "give my regards to the wife and kids."
Fleury responded. "Do me a favor, if we are going to continue being pen pals, leave my kids out of this. I don't know you, you freak. And, while you're at it, please address me as Doctor Fleury, and no, that's not my DJ name. I didn't suffer through ten years of differential equations to be talking on a first name basis with some random honky."
And, he added, "No I don't currently miss the glamorous life in the fast lane, as you describe it--jetting around talking to 'very important' customers, telling them how 'incredibly successful' they are going to be with my software. I used to do that before I got acquired."