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Ellison pressed to quantify TomorrowNow concerns

Oracle CEO faces court's questions over how many customers the company lost due to SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow's support for PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software.

Sam Diaz Senior editor, ZDNet
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years.
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Sam Diaz

Larry Ellison onstage at Oracle Open World in 2009. James Martin/CNET

OAKLAND, Calif.--Oracle CEO Larry Ellison took the stand today at his company's TomorrowNow trial versus SAP and was pressed to quantify how many customers were lost to his archrival over third-party support.

Oracle is seeking damages of $1 billion from SAP over infringement by its now defunct TomorrowNow unit, which offered third-party support for PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software. SAP has admitted guilt and the trial in U.S. District Court for Northern California is designed to pinpoint damages.

Ellison was trying to paint a picture that Oracle would lose 20 percent to 30 percent of its customers to SAP over TomorrowNow. Oracle didn't lose those customers, but did argue that it lost 358 customers to SAP due to TomorrowNow.

SAP lawyers pressed Ellison to quantify matters--where were the e-mails or documents revealing his concerns? "I would never write anything like that down," said Ellison.

Read more of "Oracle vs. SAP: Ellison pressed to quantify customer losses over TomorrowNow" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.