2011《财富》最愚蠢商业事件大盘点（下）

甲骨文对惠普发动PowerPoint攻击

    本年度“公司爆尿比赛”大奖归属于甲骨文公司（Oracle）。该公司就惠普（Hewlett-Packard）斥资110亿美元收购企业软件供应商 Autonomy公司一事，发布了一系列令人震惊的新闻通告，对其进行了猛烈攻击。

    甲骨文CEO拉里•埃里森在公司的财报电话会议上对这笔交易冷嘲热讽了一番。他说：“Autonomy公司也曾经上门找过我们，但我们当时觉得他们的报价高得离谱。”这场口水战由此打响。

    这番奚落话惹恼了Autonomy公司CEO迈克•林奇。一周后，他在接受《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal）采访时称，他的公司根本就没有跟甲骨文公司洽谈过收购事宜。

    次日，甲骨文公司就用一份言辞异常尖锐的新闻通告予以反击：“林奇先生在2011年4月1日早上11点钟，与他的投资银行家弗兰克•夸特罗内一道来到甲骨文公司，跟甲骨文并购事务主管道格拉斯•凯尔林和公司总裁马克•赫德进行了会谈。”

    甲骨文公司补充道：“林奇赶赴甲骨文的兜售之行很容易验证。他的PowerPoint幻灯片还在我们这里。”

    这可不是开玩笑。林奇再次否认他与甲骨文进行过收购谈判（他说4月份的那次会面是一次非正式的聊天）。之后，甲骨文几小时后就发布了一份名为《Autonomy公司CEO迈克•林奇再次撒谎》（Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch.）的新闻通告予以回应。它还开启一个新网页Oracle.com/PleaseBuyAutonom，对此事进行了直播。

    正如甲骨文所威胁的，网页上公布的PowerPoint幻灯片将Autonomy公司的财务状况和预测和盘托出，这正是公司与潜在买家交谈时所炫耀的那种诱饵。——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