And this time it’s Oracle that they’re pumping up as a potential suitor…

Now,  Salesforce of course has it’s origin story at Oracle, and so I’m sure many execs (including Ellison)  have not forgotten about that decision 18 years ago, but I guess time marches on.

At this point, Salesforce OWNS the fast growing CRM space, and Oracle continues to lag behind (10% of the market at current levels) and Salesforce owns more than 20% and that share – as I can attest – is growing rapidly.

So, if Oracle wants to buy it’s way into the market, I guess the Salesforce buyout makes sense…

BUT, Oracle has been, lets say – a reluctant player in the Cloud space.  Although their website is all cloud, all the time, the reality is, that Oracle is still predominantly a Client/Server DB company (with a couple of software packages and Sun Servers added on)  The idea that they can switch gears and adopt a cloud culture seems to be to be a stretch.

However, not to be too Fiddler on the roof about it, but Ellison can’t do this forever, and maybe he sees Benioff as a worthy successor.  If THAT’S the play, then Oracle Acquires a cloud behemoth, Ellison hands the keys to Benioff in short order, and the Cloud culture at Salesforce basically overtakes the server culture at Oracle.

And if that’s true, I don’t think that I (selfishly) have anything to worry about at BlackIron.  One of my favorite things about being a partner with Salesforce for all these years (13 years and counting) is that the culture at the company (1,1,1 etc.) is great, and that the idea that you’re a small part of it is re-enforcing.

Anyway, here’s the article about the Oracle buyout…