IBM is taking off its kid gloves. IBM, the blue-chip company with a buttoned-down reputation, on Friday fired off a full-page newspaper ad in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal aimed at stealing its archrival Oracle Corp.'s database customers. "MAY DAY! MAY DAY! (rescuing Oracle users)," the ad said. It goes on to warn readers that Oracle sales people will soon call on them to buy the next version of its software as it stops supporting current versions.
On the one hand, the ad befits a long, bitter rivalry between International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle for the top spot in the database markets. Oracle dominates the database market, but IBM has been challenging it for the top spot. But consolidation and antitrust threats have forced software companies to become more friendly, as evidenced by Microsoft making up with a number of rivals like America Online, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and SAP AG, after years of being thought of as the biggest bully in the sandbox.
News source: Reuters
