A trip down memory lane, courtesy of Larry Ellison
The news that Larry Ellison is planning a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft caused Mike Sax to reminisce:
The recent news of Oracle's $5 Billion hostile take-over bid for PeopleSoft reminded me of a very negative encounter I had with Ellison a two years ago...
It all started many years ago, when Ralph Nader teamed up with Scott McNealy, Jim Barksdale and other captains of industry to lobby against Microsoft. This was the first time people in our industry were using politics as a means to gain competitive advantage, and I personally found it really repulsive. It's really nice of Nader to make sure we have good air bags, but teaming up with the software billionaires was a clear sign that Ralph had lost touch with his roots.
Several of my fellow developers shared my feelings, and we decided to rent a room at a hotel in Washington DC, right across from the Nader conference, and hold our own press conference. It was great... we had "Ralph Nader Doesn't Speak for Me" buttons (he claimed to speak for all computer users), and there were cameras from NBC, CNN, and others. Unfortunately, Sadam invaded Iraq around that time and stole our 15 minutes of fame.
The experience was exhilarating, and I started the organization called the "Association for Software Competitors". I later renamed it to the "Association for Competition and Technology", because non-software companies wanted to join, too. It started with a small website, but it soon snowballed.
[Mike Sax]
I remember that meeting well, and I'm still steamed at the government's unjustified attack on Microsoft at the behest of it's competitors. At the very least, our nation's antitrust laws are far too easily abused by industry competitors. At worst, they are a steaming pile of offal that should have been done away with long ago (and would have, if not for those who benefit handsomely from it...namely politicians and losing competitors). I'll leave it at that, but anyone who's interested in finding out more about antitrust (and why I'm so skeptical of it) would do well to read Dominick Armentano's Antitrust: The Case for Repeal.
BTW - I think I still have my "Ralph Nader Doesn't Speak for Me" button. (UPDATE: I found the button! It was in a box of stuff from my desk at my the last consulting firm I worked for before starting my own company. It now sits proudly tacked to the wall behind my desk.)
UPDATE: I realized after the fact that I had omitted the context for the quote above...I've added the context. Sax goes on to describe Ellison's dumpster diving in search of dirt against Microsoft at ACT's Washington, DC offices...a truly low point in the competition between Oracle and Microsoft...unless you count the $3 million that Scott MacNeally spent to get the DoJ after Microsoft in the first place.