Oracle's number two quits
Ray Lane, Oracle's number two is to leave his
post at the database giant after eight years.
Linda Leung in Silicon Valley, vnunet.com
02 Jul 2000
Ray Lane, Oracle's number two is to leave his post
at the database giant after eight years.
Lane's departure as president and chief operating
officer was announced in a short statement issued by the company late on Friday.
The news follows years of speculation that he was considering top jobs at
Hewlett Packard, Apple, EDS and Novell.
As second in command to chief executive, Larry
Ellison, Lane headed up Oracle's global sales efforts. Although he was courted
by many IT vendors he always remained loyal to Ellison and Oracle rewarded him
by tripling his salary and bonuses to $3.25m last year.
According to reports, Lane's department has been
rumoured for about nine months. No replacement has been announced. In Friday's
statement, Ellison said: "I am grateful to Ray for all of his efforts. He will
be missed. We wish him nothing but the best."
In an exclusive interview with vnunet.com in
1998, Lane said he was happy to be Oracle's number two. "I can be number one at
what I do best. I know how to sell, consult for customers and give them a good
experience, but I really don't know how to develop products. Larry says: 'I am
the head of development, you are the head of operations - we are partners.' He
does not tell me what to do in operations and I don't tell him what to do in
development."
Lane's departure follows the surprise retirement
of Pier Carlo Falotti, as head of Oracle's Europe, Middle East and Africa region
at the end of May. | 
