On Mar. 22, two days after reporting blockbuster sales of Oracle's (
ORCL) business software in a conference call that included potshots at archrival SAP (
SAP),
the company filed suit in a federal court in San Francisco, claiming
SAP employees stole 10,000 tech-support files from its computers in a
case of "corporate theft on a grand scale."
The suit is the latest shot in the blood feud between tech's
fiercest competitors.Oracle accuses top SAP executives of orchestrating a heist to
improve their own products and steal Oracle's customers. It alleges
that SAP employees posed as Oracle customers, stole passwords, and
cached purloined documents on SAP computers. Whether true or not,
analysts say the accusations could sully SAP's reputation and crimp
first-quarter sales as it tries to bounce back from a recent slowdown.
Oracle would not comment.
SAP vows to defend itself aggressively and suggests the suit could
be little more than a marketing ploy.They see it as Oracle's creative ways to attack their business if they don't see a way
to beat them in the marketplace.
SAP doesn't hold back, either. Its TomorrowNow acquisition,
which came just as Oracle bought PeopleSoft,
was seen as a way of undercutting Oracle. TomorrowNow sells
support for software from PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Siebel
Systems—all three now part of Oracle—at half price. About 300 customers
have signed up for the service, which offers fast phone support and
updates that keep software current with regulations.