The Difference Between God And Larry Ellison*: Inside Oracle Corporation [Hardcover]

Mike Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 1997

As the head of the Oracle Software Corporation, Ellison keeps his name firmly in the headlines: Recently he announced his desire to buy Apple Computer (only to change his mind just weeks later) and now he has a place on Apple's board, alongside his friend Steve Jobs. Equally bold are his visionary ideas (the network computer, for example), his public determination to conquer Bill Gates, and his brash, yet immensely appealing personality, which has made him one of the most visible players in Silicon Valley. One of the ways he's done this is by making sure that Oracle software is everywhere you turn: If you withdraw cash from an ATM, that's Oracle at work. If you make an airline reservation, you're experiencing Ellison's impact on today's technology landscape. While Microsoft was busy putting a computer in every home, Ellison was fomenting a revolution at the office, creating faster and better databases for businesses and government agencies. Along the way, as this probing book shows, Ellison developed the skills of a ruthless businessman, who sometimes employed misdirection and half-truths to achieve the success he desired.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It seems like all of the biggest names in the computer industry are getting the celebrity bio treatment these days. But no corporate CEO deserves it more than Larry Ellison, the charismatic head of Oracle Corp. This isn't your standard, dry, "learn-from-his-example" type of life. It's not that Ellison's life doesn't offer the same lessons in hard-won business success as some of his colleague's, because it certainly does. It's just vastly more entertaining.

In The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison, author Mike Wilson delivers a fascinating and genuinely interesting portrayal of Silicon Valley's most notorious bad boy, constructed from hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and those unfortunate enough to stand in Ellison's way. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes stories of the growth and worldwide success of Oracle, which Ellison founded in 1977. Plus, there's plenty of the good stuff: tales of Ellison's truly fast-lane lifestyle, filled with big boats, beautiful women, and celebrity friends. While this book probably won't transform you into a fan of Ellison's, you will be grateful for a chance to observe him--from a safe distance.

The punchline is "God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison," of course.

From Kirkus Reviews

An authorized biography of Oracle's founder and brash billionaire leader. Ellison, the adopted son of a Jewish couple from Chicago, seems to specialize in reinventing himself. By all accounts, he grew up on middle-class South Shore Drive, but he has told reporters that he lived in the South Side ghetto. He was an uninspired student who never received a college degree but would maintain something of an obsession with the University of Chicago and imply he had an advanced degree in physics. Ellison is also an indifferent student of language but has arranged his home with all the trappings of a Japanese lord, and a few boats and helicopters to boot. These grand inconsistencies--delightful to some, horribly irritating to others, including many former employees--go a long way to explaining Ellison's unbelievable success at marketing his Oracle database software, used by thousands of companies. One employee, a devout Mormon named Rick Bennett, even considered his ubiquitous software akin to ``an instrument of God'' and believed Ellison pivotal to modern-day Mormonism. Wilson, an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, wisely focuses much of the attention on Ellison's one-sided feud with Bill Gates (who views Ellison as something of a gadfly but doesn't mention his name at all in his book, The Road Ahead) and documents his obsession nicely. He also does a fair job of explaining Ellison's vision for the NC, an inexpensive computer that provides quick access to the Internet and stores all of its software on a network server, rather than on a hard drive. While some in the computer business see the NC as the future computer for schools, many others see it as a $500 empty box and a poor attempt to topple Microsoft. While the title is the funniest line of the book, this is an engaging, humanizing look at a Silicon Valley megalomaniac. (8 pages b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 385 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (November 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688149251
• ISBN-13: 978-0688149253
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Biographies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reading, March 10, 2005

By 

Bert "Bert" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison (Paperback)

It's a very good book in terms of the history of the computing giants that shaped the world. It kept my attention long enough to dedicate 2 days to reading it cover to cover. As an Oracle programmer, it helped me understand some of the thoughts I had of the company since working with their product since the early 90's.

The author tried the address the book as a novel, skipping around in time and making it difficult to follow. You go from 1977 to 1989 to 1991 to 1984 to 1996 to ... (you get what I mean). Confusing.

This is the type of book that needed to be more linear in timeline or overlapping in timeline, but not arranged the way it was. Still, very enjoyable and worth the read for those that enjoy the behind the scenes action that shaped technology as we know it today.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great history of Oracle from many different perspectives, September 16, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Difference Between God And Larry Ellison*: Inside Oracle Corporation (Hardcover)

Yes, I liked it. As an Oracle UK employee it filled in information on many of the myths that float around the company. It would make good reading for anyone who would like to get an insight into what drives Larry and how he views himself (and wants others to view him as well).

The book is well written but compared to other biographies that I have read, does not capture and hold the reader. I found some of the chapters very hard going (particularly the discussions of in depth finance) but others held my attention well.

The book is worth reading merely for the information that it contains from realtives, friends and even interviews with Larry.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison, April 2, 2000

By 

Aero Nut (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Difference Between God And Larry Ellison*, The *god Doesn't Think He's Larry E: *god Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison / Inside Oracle Corporation (Paperback)

I found out about this book in an Oracle training class two years ago but put off reading it until now. THIS BOOK KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF! The most fascinating thing about this story was that I had witnessed almost all the book's events in my own experiences working for other high-tech startup companies here in the Denver area. I was constantly saying to myself, as I read, "That's exactly what happened when I was working at (fill in the blank) Inc!". The same personalities (some even worse), the same marketing pressures, the same technical problems, the same product support problems, the same legal problems, the same IPOs, and some of the same rewards (but I didn't receive as many stock options ;^).

I would HIGHLY recommend this book to any (technical) person who is considering working for a high-tech startup for the first time. This is the greatest and most accurate tale (at least in my experience) that is available of day-to-day life in a startup company. Some of the stuff that happens at these types of companies is SO WEIRD that you usually have to see it for yourself to believe it. This book gives a VERY GOOD look at "the weird stuff".