Gadgetory

hello and welcome to inside scoop I'm Jimmy das joining us is executive editor of cnet news Charles Cooper Charles it sounds so official can I just call you coupe you may alright so news today a bit of a surprise Larry Ellison is stepping down from the CEO position at Oracle do we know why uh because I think it's time yeah he's been running this show since 1977 he's done 70 years old he doesn't look it plastic surgery really helps look he's done almost everything that you could imagine you know it's a storybook career he's built a start-up over four decades into a multi-billion dollar enterprise right he's taken the stock price to it is he's done well he's done well for shareholders although of late the company has not been hitting on all cylinders so perhaps that's part of the decision to get younger managers in place both safra catz and marker they're very can do people the very very experienced and for Ellison you know he owns most of the island of Lanai he races in the America's Cup lots of yacht he's cut a Bella Figura I think he has other interests besides just clocking in at the office and after four decades yeah why not at age 70 he might just want to enjoy those things I think so okay so you mentioned the names of the two CEOs which I'm hearing that Oracle is intentionally not calling them co-ceos they're both CEOs tell us about these two people well it's it's a bit of an odd arrangement of safra catz has been there longer she's a very experienced number crunching executive very strongly to very competent nice to see a woman at the helm absolutely and you know she's one of the best out there mark hurd as you may recall was the CEO of hewlett-packard he left scandal hits under a cloud but he's been there now for the last few years and a word of any scandal he's a very competent executive as well so now it's maybe jump all see who who works out there's some you know question how long this can last you know back in the days of the Roman Empire at one point I think during the time of diocletian that had four emperors simultaneously it worked out although the end result wasn't so great the folks at research in motion had a dual CEO arrangement that too didn't work out ultimately but historically it's not a popular way to kind of manage company is in the end I think they need one boss but we'll see we'll see how things shake out so how is the public front of reacting to this news we know that the stock price has been a little bit anyway in After Hours the stock price has been down but again that's probably just the reaction Wall Street doesn't like surprises they'll get over this ultimately it's all about sales and earnings and whether or not they can continue to meet and beat Wall Street's expectations okay do you think the tech community is going to miss Larry Ellison he was such a controversial at times figure and just a presence right I think headline writers around the world are going to probably bow their heads and cry tonight because Ellison going back in decades that you know in the early i believe around 2000 when the Microsoft antitrust case was going on you know Oracle basically it was called the dumpster diving scandal Ellison said he had no personal knowledge of it but he did confirm that Oracle had paid investigators to look into companies which were funded by microsoft in opposition to the government's you know plan to break up the company you know he's got a pretty much of a big mouth he he can back it up and he talks to talk and he's walked the walk and you know it's it's delightful to see somebody who's very comfortable in his own skin who says it like it is we're in a very scripted world now unfortunately and people reserve their their true sentiments for behind closed doors with Ellison for the most part what you saw was what there was yeah it was honest he was you could say that about him alright coupe Charlie Cooper to lose if you want to be more formal thanks for joining us thank you sue me for inside scoop