Oracle doubles SAP loss
ORACLE’s chief executive Larry Ellison claimed in court yesterday that SAP’s theft of its software cost his company $4bn (£2.4bn), doubling his previous estimate.
But Ellison failed to bring written evidence to support his testimony.
SAP lawyers immediately challenged Ellison to back up the new figure, but Ellison said he could not cite documentation proving his company’s claim of the cost of lost business. German-based SAP has said it owes Oracle only tens of millions of dollars.
Ellison also failed to back up his claim that Hewlett-Packard’s new chief executive, Leo Apotheker, knew of the theft while he was in charge of SAP and did nothing about it until Oracle sued. The two software companies, which together dominate the business software market, are in court to determine the amount of damages for the software theft which SAP has already accepted liability for.