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Oracle raises software prices (Verdict: smart, but obnoxious)

Oracle continues to be the smartest software company on the planet, even if all of their products aren't great.

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Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
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Dave Rosenberg

Oracle raised the prices for a number of its products this week, by as much as twenty percent in many cases. While on the surface this seems silly in a down economy the truth is that it's actually a very smart move.

First of all, Oracle sets the pricing for the database market (and now possibly the app server market too) and therefore should always be looking for ways to increase their prices. The other important aspect is the fact that Oracle discounts heavily off list price. With a large increase (say 20%) they stand to even their loss on the list vs. actual price. It's deviously ingenious.

Do I think this is good for Oracle customers? No. But, once again I have to marvel at the economic prowess that Oracle continues to display. Meanwhile, just go get some MySQL.