Larry Ellison had some interesting thoughts on the on-demand model, especially intriguing as he retains his interest in NetSuite, the on-demand ERP provider. His ownership stake, which might appear to be a conflict since Oracle competes with NetSuite, is in some sort of blind trust.

Oracle’s CEO said the company’s on-demand business posted 25% growth year over year but seemed to agree with a questioner that it had been hovering at about 3% of overall revenue for some time.

“We’ve been in the on-demand business for almost a decade. We’re the second largest provider of sales automation software behind Salesforce.com and Q4 was the first quarter we actually made money [at it],” he told analysts on the fourth quarter and fiscal year ‘08 earnings call Wednesday night.

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It’s that time of year for the database market share squabble. IDC has released its numbers–at least to the vendors–and two of the three big database players are claiming victory.

From the snippets the vendors themselves release, it’s hard to draw conclusions. It’s like the blind men and the elephant: You can’t judge the entire gestalt from mere fragments.

On its earnings call last night, Oracle president Charles Phillips crowed about IDC data showing Oracle’s database share at 44.3% vs. 21% for IBM vs. 18.5% for Microsoft.

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Being an Oracle partner can be a pricey business.

For example: If you’re a select Oracle partner who wants face time with Oracle reps at the vendor’s yearly sales kickoff, you can pay either $6K, $10K or $25K for the privilege.

For that amount you get to be an Exhibitor Partner at the big Las Vegas event. The idea is to get your pitch to Oracle sales reps. There are many. The event draws some 40,000 people in early June. Maybe even (knock wood) get a look from Charles or Larry. Read more »

The Cadillac of databases has become the Mercedes. Ok, that might not be the right analogy, so let’s just say that Oracle has hiked prices across its software portfolio. Significantly.

An example: Per CPU pricing on the big Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition database is now $47,500 vs. $40,000 before. Per user pricing on the same SKU is now $950 vs. $800. Read more »

MySQL execs took to the road this week, talking up the database’s increasing relevance to big businesses.

The message at a Boston event Tuesday night, was that Sun Microsystems’ buyout of the open source database company gives MySQL easier entry into very large accounts.

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Carl Icahn has surfaced again in tech M&A mayhem: This time  he’s buying up Yahoo stock in what may be an attempt to force that company’s recalcitrant execs back to the negotiating table with Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal and others (including, Yahoo news) reported this tidbit this afternoon.

As most are undoubtedly aware by now, Microsoft walked away from its near-$50-billion-bid for Yahoo. (Or did Yahoo forget what was bid? I forget.)

If reopening the Microhoo talks is the goal, Icahn could be reprising the role he played in the Oracle-BEA Systems buyout saga. If you need a refresher on that one: BEA strongly opposed Oracle’s unsolicited offer, then, months later, accepted.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

SAP named Leo Apotheker co-CEO Wednesday. He will share CEO-ing duties with Henning Kagermann until the latter leaves the company next year.

Apotheker had been deputy CEO. Kagermann’s contract expires in 2009 and he said today he will leave at that time.

In the second half of 2008 “Leo and the new team will be the ones who will do the budget and start thinking beyond 2010,” Kagermann told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.

In a prepared statement, SAP co-founder and supervisory board chairman Hasso Plattner said Kagermann had requested Apotheker’s appointment.

SAP also named its very first COO by promoting Erwin Gunst to that post. Gunst had been president of the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

The moves were decided by SAP’s supervisory board, which also appointed Gunst, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe corporate officers effective July 1.

SAP is the ERP software leader, but faces big challenges as it tries to navigate from being an enterprise-only provider to wooing and winning smaller accounts. There it relies on its five-year old PartnerEdge program to penetrate accounts that would normally not hit its radar. In coming down market, SAP now must compete with erstwhile ally Microsoft for those smaller accounts

It also faces a lawsuit filed by Oracle over SAP’s TomorrowNow Unit’s business practices. Worse, a major customer, Waste Management Inc., has sued SAP calling the company’s $100 million software implementation in its shop a “complete failure.”

This is not the kind of press any company wants, especially in a tight economy.

Some interesting tidbits from today’s call: Apotheker said the company will continue its move into the mass market. “It’s our intention to move more and more into the volume business.” Hmmm. Volume. Isn’t that Microsoft’s mantra? Interesting…

Apotheker was asked whether SAP would step up its marketing rhetoric even as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison appears to be dialing down  his. The reporter referred to a recent call in which Ellison barely crowed about Oracle’s BEA Systems acquisition. Apotheker appeared to shrug it off: “As to Larry keeping quiet in a conference call, maybe he had a sore throat.”

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

April Fools Day gives reporters a chance to write the faux headlines they would like to craft but can’t. At least for real

Here are the top creations from the SearchITChannel staff.

Gartner recommends using more acronyms

Microsoft changes gears, embraces open source

CompTIA offers new certification in undersea IT

Google Earth shows iPods, Macs in Gates mansion

Ballmer seen jogging with Apple T-shirt, hastily removed

Dell backs up partner-friendly meme, cans entire sales staff

Vendors clamor aboard “Service as a Service” bandwagon

VMware names Jamiroquai new CEO

Dueling Cisco/Microsoft unified communications plans to connect devices and people that, frankly, should never be connected. To anything. Ever.

Oracle to rely almost exclusively on channel to serve businesses with exactly 47.3 employees

Prospective Microsoft Gold VAR peruses program qualifications, opts for early retirement

Red Hat partner finds pigeon, er customer, willing to pay for free stuff

Windows XP SP3 to ship tomorrow, no today, no June 1, no May 15, wait! next year! oh never mind …

Microsoft code-name generator on the fritz, trade press freaks

The first five are courtesy of Matthew Donnelly, who’s clearly given this a lot of thought. Numbers six and seven come from Yuval Shavit–and he nails the whole hyped “as a service” meme. Rivka Little tossed off the Cisco jibe. The Jamiroquai item comes courtesy of Colin Steele, and yes, oldsters will probably have to Google this reference.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

Oracle bought Hyperion and now it wants to sell it. Direct. Through partners. Just sell it.

Hyperion’s business intelligence (BI) products give the database giant a weapon to use against Business Objects, now owned by Oracle’s latest nemesis —  SAP.

On Tuesday’s channel partner call hosted by Oracle group vice presidents Tyler Prince and John Gray was to “sell, sell, sell Hyperion,” said one partner who listened in.

Another east coast Oracle partner was not on the call but confirmed that the BI push is on with Oracle. While many Oracle reseller and implementation partners say they see increased conflict with their vendor of choice, a select subset is getting much love: Oracle partners who also sell/support Business Objects.

Those partners have the BI expertise needed to implement sophisticated analytics at customer sites. And BI installations typically drag along a lot of services. This is not lost on Oracle. “For once the stars are aligned for us,” vis-a-vis Oracle, said this partner. Partners like him are in the catbird seat because they can help Oracle sell Hyperion, and chip away at the SAP/Business Objects dominance.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

Word out of Redwood Shores is that Oracle has tapped the new channel chief for North America.

Make that channel chiefs. Plural.  Apparently it takes not one but two men to fill Rauline Ochs’ shoes: Tyler Prince and John Gray are dividing up Ochs’ responsibilities.

Both had reported to Ochs.

What’s different here is Oracle has gone back to its applications-and-technology segmentation. Prince will handle the ever-growing applications and the relevant partners. Gray gets technology, aka the database and tools partner kingdom.

An Oracle spokeswoman said she could not confirm the news, which came from sources close to the software giant.

Ochs lef the company three months ago for a new gig at Safeco. Then, just two weeks ago, her worldwide counterpart Doug Kennedy took off for Microsoft. Judson Althoff replaced Kennedy.

[Note: An Oracle spokeswoman confirmed the Prince and Gray promotions on Friday night. Prince was previously group vice president of strategic SIs, industry and Fusion middleware alliance. Gray was group vice president, North American ISVs. It was unclear what their new titles would be. The changes were announced internally on Thursday.]

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.