甲骨文對惠普發動PowerPoint攻擊

????本年度“公司爆尿比賽”大獎歸屬于甲骨文公司（Oracle）。該公司就惠普（Hewlett-Packard）斥資110億美元收購企業軟件供應商 Autonomy公司一事，發布了一系列令人震驚的新聞通告，對其進行了猛烈攻擊。

????甲骨文CEO拉里?埃里森在公司的財報電話會議上對這筆交易冷嘲熱諷了一番。他說：“Autonomy公司也曾經上門找過我們，但我們當時覺得他們的報價高得離譜。”這場口水戰由此打響。

????這番奚落話惹惱了Autonomy公司CEO邁克?林奇。一周后，他在接受《華爾街日報》（the Wall Street Journal）采訪時稱，他的公司根本就沒有跟甲骨文公司洽談過收購事宜。

????次日，甲骨文公司就用一份言辭異常尖銳的新聞通告予以反擊：“林奇先生在2011年4月1日早上11點鐘，與他的投資銀行家弗蘭克?夸特羅內一道來到甲骨文公司，跟甲骨文并購事務主管道格拉斯?凱爾林和公司總裁馬克?赫德進行了會談。”

????甲骨文公司補充道：“林奇趕赴甲骨文的兜售之行很容易驗證。他的PowerPoint幻燈片還在我們這里。”

????這可不是開玩笑。林奇再次否認他與甲骨文進行過收購談判（他說4月份的那次會面是一次非正式的聊天）。之后，甲骨文幾小時后就發布了一份名為《Autonomy公司CEO邁克?林奇再次撒謊》（Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch.）的新聞通告予以回應。它還開啟一個新網頁Oracle.com/PleaseBuyAutonom，對此事進行了直播。

????正如甲骨文所威脅的，網頁上公布的PowerPoint幻燈片將Autonomy公司的財務狀況和預測和盤托出，這正是公司與潛在買家交談時所炫耀的那種誘餌。——史黛西?考莉

Oracle's PowerPoint assault on HP

????The award for "corporate pissing match of the year" goes to Oracle. It fired off an astonishing series of press releases and jabs at Hewlett-Packard over its $11 billion purchase of enterprise software vendor Autonomy.

????The battle started when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison trash-talked the deal during Oracle's earnings call. "Autonomy was shopped to us," Ellison said. "We looked at the price and thought it was absurdly high."

????The dig irked Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who told the Wall Street Journal a week later that his company hadn't talked with Oracle about an acquisition.

????Oracle smacked back a day later with an unusually pointed press release: "Mr. Lynch came to Oracle, along with his investment banker, Frank Quattrone, and met with Oracle's head of M&A, Douglas Kehring and Oracle President Mark Hurd at 11 am on April 1, 2011."

????Oracle added: "The Lynch shopping visit to Oracle is easy to verify. We still have his PowerPoint slides."

????It wasn't kidding. After Lynch once again denied having takeover talks -- he cast the April meeting as an informal introductory chat -- Oracle responded hours later with a press release titled "Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch." It also went live with a new webpage: Oracle.com/PleaseBuyAutonomy.

????As threatened, the site featured the PowerPoints laying bare Autonomy's financials and forecasts -- exactly the kind of bait companies dangle when talking to potential buyers. -- Stacy Cowley