An intriguing Apple 'What if?' scenario

In our "Macintosh Insurrection" cover story in this week's print edition, an earlier version of which was posted on our site last month, Rob Mitchell looks at why such an insurrection could happen in the enterprise, and why it probably won't. The story raises an intriguing question: If Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's bluster about acquiring Apple back in the late ‘90s had panned out, would Apple be more enterprise-friendly today?

The prospect of Ellison acquiring what was then a very sick Apple was all the buzz in early 1997. This was long before blogs became popular, but you could still weigh in on the prospect by e-mailing savapple@us.oracle.com. A lot of people dismissed the prospect as Larry being Larry, but when I spoke with Ellison in January of 1997, he insisted that a deal was closer than a lot of people realized, and that it would have happened if Jobs hadn't nixed it. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

TENNANT: Now that Apple Computer's course has pretty much been set [with Steve Jobs' return to Apple the previous month], what's the story behind the story? How serious were you about going after Apple in [former Apple CEO] Michael Spindler's final days?

ELLISON: Very serious. In fact we even lined up the money. But that was not Oracle buying Apple, that was Steve Jobs and me buying Apple. We had lined up the money, and Steve decided in the end that he didn't want to do it. I've always viewed Apple as Steve's company. He's my best friend, and my friendship with him is very important. We decided not to go ahead. It was his choice.

TENNANT: What did Jobs say to you when he was approached by Apple to come back and bring NeXT Software with him?

ELLISON: He thought the NeXT technology would help Apple enormously, and we still believe that. I believe the NeXT technology will help, but what will help even more is if Apple listens to Steve very carefully.

TENNANT: What's Steve saying to them?

ELLISON: I'm not sure I can disclose all of that. I'm not sure I know all of that. Steve thinks a number of things have to be changed at Apple -- major things -- and I really don't want to go into it. [Apple CEO] Gil [Amelio] may do it and Gil may not do it. We just don't know.

In any case, suppose the team of Ellison and Jobs had acquired Apple. Wouldn't Ellison likely have done everything in his power to leverage his investment in Apple to boost his standing in the enterprise? Wouldn't Apple have a much more formidable presence in the enterprise today?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/apple_what_if