Larry Ellison

Oracle and Alinghi have agreed that the 33rd America's Cup set for Valencia next year will be either a five-leg or seven-leg competition instead of the the best-of-three event that has been proposed, the mayor of the Spanish port city said Friday. An agreement in principle in this sense was reached at a meeting in the city on Thursday between representatives of the two sides, Valencia mayor Rita Barbera said. The two sides were meeting to prepare the next edition of the sailing race in the... Read Full Story

The giant trimaran of America's Cup challenger Oracle is now 20 percent faster with its new fixed-wing sail than when the boat was launched more than a year ago, the team's skipper said Wednesday. The US team first tested the 50-metre carbon fibre sail early last month at its base in San Diego, California, for use in the scheduled February duel with Swiss defender Alinghi to decide the 33rd edition of yachting's premier event. Oracle's BOR 90 trimaran is now "20 percent faster" than when it... Read Full Story

THE KING OF THE CLOUD Behind the Cloud By Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler Josey-Bass; 278 pp.; $27.95 In the annals of technology, the latest phenomenon to get the attention of the industry's powerful hype machine is cloud computing. This is the idea that instead of people and companies owning and managing the computers and software that perform many of their everyday tasks, much of that technological scut work will be handled by others, out of sight, in the mists. People can tap the... Read Full Story

The next America's Cup looks set to take place in the Spanish Mediterranean port of Valencia in February, after more than two years of legal wrangling over the conditions and venue for yachting's most prestigious event. Defender Alinghi of Switzerland said on Tuesday it is ready to hold its three-leg duel with Oracle in Valencia from February 8, the site and date favoured by the US challenger. Oracle responded by saying it was "very pleased to see that SNG/Alinghi have finally agreed with us... Read Full Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Australia has emerged as a possible compromise venue for next year's America's Cup race after a New York judge on Friday ordered two rivals for yachting's most prestigious prize to hold private negotiations. Defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland and California challenger BMW Oracle have been locked in a two-year legal dispute over the terms of the 33rd edition of the race. The most recent disagreement has concerned where the race, now scheduled for February 2010... Read Full Story

America's Cup defender Alinghi said Tuesday that it would appeal against a US court ruling that had stifled attempts to hold the next round of yachting's most prestigious trophy in the United Arab Emirates. Alinghi said in a statement that its home club in the Swiss city of Geneva, the Societe Nautique de Geneve, "has applied for an expedited appeal to avoid any delay to the February 2010 Deed of Gift Match." New York Supreme Court Judge Shirley Kornreich had ruled in US challenger Oracle's... Read Full Story

This isn't your great-grandfather's America's Cup. What used to be an insulated sport for fabulously wealthy men named Lipton and Vanderbilt has morphed into something out of a James Bond movie or a Tom Clancy novel, all wrapped up in two of the fastest, most-extreme boats ever to cut through — or in this case, literally fly above — the sea spray. When two-time defending champion Alinghi of landlocked Switzerland picked little-known Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, to host its nautical... Read Full Story

US syndicate Oracle reiterated Thursday that the port of Valencia in eastern Spain is the "best option" to host its multihull duel in February 2010 against Swiss side Alinghi to settle the 33rd America's Cup. "Valencia is the best option to get the America's Cup back on track as soon as possible. This is what sailing fans from around the world are waiting for," Oracle's New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts said in a statement. Both teams still have bases in the city on Spain's Mediterranean... Read Full Story

Larry Ellison ratcheted up his rhetoric against IBM Corp. on Wednesday, challenging Oracle Corp.'s longtime partner and rival to "make our day" in a battle over business software performance. Ellison, Oracle's billionaire CEO, shook up the technology world in April by outbidding IBM and snatching up struggling server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.4 billion. The deal, which still needs approval from European antitrust authorities, would make Oracle more of a one-stop... Read Full Story

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (Reuters) - Oracle Corp <ORCL.O> Chief Executive Larry Ellison said Sun Microsystems Inc <JAVA.O> is losing about $100 million a month as European regulators delay approving his company's $7 billion purchase of the struggling hardware maker. "The longer this takes, the more money Sun is going to lose," Ellison said on Monday evening during a dinner at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent speaker's forums, the Churchill Club. Sun's revenue has tumbled since April when... Read Full Story