Following the revelation that the fiercely independent database company Oracle Corp was seeking an equity investor (CI No 1,610), a few more details have come to light. Mike Musson, director of investor relations with Oracle has confirmed that the company is looking for alternative sources of financing, but he declined to comment as to whether the company was currently in negotiations with an outside investor. All that the company is prepared to say is that it will never enter an equity agreement with a hardware vendor and that it is not negotiating with Fujitsu Ltd. However, Oracle wants to be aggressive in the Japanese market, where it believes there are enormous opportunities and it is looking to establish a marketing partnership with a Japanese company with established distribution organisations. Of course Oracle does not want to partner a Japanese hardware vendor – perish the thought of having to change a lifetime’s marketing strategy. Consequently, Musson says that the company is looking for a Japanese company in a related industry, such as consumer electronics, which would sell to the same types of customer as Oracle. Musson admitted that there may be a possibility that such a Japanese comp any might take some equity, although he added that the impetus for the Japanese partnership is not equi ty. But then again Oracle is not closing off any options. At the moment Oracle is renegotiating its line of credit with its banking syndicate. The stic king point at present, according to Musson, is that the banks want to secure the credit against accounts receivable while Oracle wants it secured against revenues. The whole matter should be settled by the end of March, leaving Oracle with adequate credit. One thing Musson is clear about is that Oracle has no plans to sell off any part of the company – and that includes the rather unstable systems integration arm.
