Oracle’s Attack on 3rd Party Support – A Series of Timelines

As we have covered previously, Oracle began its aggressive pursuits against third party support providers by suing its major competitor: SAP (through its ownership of TomorrowNow). It followed up by bringing a lawsuit against Rimini Street, and most recently pulled its former business partner CedarCrestone into the fray.

Where will things go from here? As we’ve discussed in previous posts and have had the opportunity to speak to numerous clients about over the last few years, the outcome of these cases could impact businesses’ ability to turn to third party support channels in order to reduce pricey maintenance contracts that, in some cases, cost millions of dollars on an annual basis.

If the third party support industry survives these three pending cases, might Oracle take an entirely new approach to protecting its lucrative maintenance/support revenues? Oracle could, for example, act to control the third party support industry by selecting a primary provider as their “authorized” third party support provider. Through this “partnership” Oracle would be able to keep a portion of the revenue they might otherwise lose out on through a “kick back” or referral type relationship with the “authorized” provider.

For a historical perspective of how things got to where they are today, we will be rolling out a series of timelines for each of the key legal battles Oracle has brought to the third party support market. We will begin with Oracle v SAP/TomorrowNow. As you will see we have not included every step along the the way, but rather focused on the key events. Should you wish to discuss this timeline or any of those forthcoming in more detail, please feel free to contact us.

Oracle’s Attack on 3rd Party Support –  A Series of Timelines

• Oracle v SAP/TomorrowNow
• Oracle v Rimini Street
• Oracle v Cedar Crestone (coming soon)
• Webinar – Hidden Truths about Software Support