Talks between Oracle and user group in limbo
The outcome of talks aimed at resolving a yearlong feud over conferences between Oracle Corp. and an independent group of its business application users remains in limbo after an Oracle-imposed deadline for finalizing a deal came and went last night without any action being taken.
Officials from both Oracle and the Atlanta-based Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) said they're still trying to iron out their differences despite the expiration of the company's deadline. A conference call was scheduled to be held on the matter yesterday, but it had to be postponed after key Oracle executives were unable to take part.
Jeremy Young, the OAUG's president, said in a notice posted on the user group's Web site today that Oracle asked to move the conference call to a still-undetermined time late next week. Yesterday was the last day of Oracle's fiscal year, and Young said Ron Wohl, the company's executive vice president of applications development, and Mark Jarvis, its chief marketing officer, had to cancel out of the scheduled call "due to the press of business."
Although the deadline to accept or reject the proposal has passed without any formal resolution or extension, an Oracle spokeswoman said that in light of yesterday's events, the software vendor "will expect the OAUG board's response when the call happens next week."
The talks between Oracle and the OAUG over possibly teaming up to again run joint conferences turned contentious last week, when the company publicized the negotiations and made a direct appeal to the user group's membership. Oracle also set the now-lapsed May 31 deadline for its proposal to be accepted by the OAUG.
Oracle's actions upset Young and other OAUG officials, who said they felt the company was trying to circumvent the negotiation process. In a response to Oracle that was posted on the OAUG's Web site last Friday, Young said the company's proposal was "largely similar" to one rejected by the user group's members last year.
The OAUG also contended in a separate statement that Oracle hasn't responded to a proposal made by the user group under which it would work jointly with the software vendor on Oracle-sponsored applications conferences in return for the company supporting the OAUG's annual fall event.
The dispute over conferences began last spring, when Oracle offered to fold the OAUG conferences into one that it would run. The user group's members rejected that idea, with OAUG officials saying that they need to maintain control over the content of conferences in order to keep the shows from becoming too marketing-focused.
Shortly afterward, Oracle announced plans for its own AppsWorld conference. The company hosted the first two AppsWorld events earlier this year in Paris and New Orleans and withdrew its support from the OAUG's spring conference in Atlanta during April, increasing the friction between the two sides.
» posted by ITworld staff
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