Oracle is definitely not the first company that comes to mind when you think about smartphones, but it seems that at one point in time they were close to changing that perception. According to Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison, the company did at one point consider building a smartphone of its own and had RIM and Palm in its sights as potential acquisitions. However as it turns out, RIM was too expensive while Palm was simply not competitive enough. He was also quoted as saying, “We explored the idea (of building a phone) and decided it would be a bad idea.”This revelation was made under cross-examination by an attorney for Google who was attempting to dig up evidence that could suggest that Oracle was only suing Google due to their failed smartphone efforts. For those unfamiliar, both Oracle and Google are currently in a legal battle, with the former accusing Google of violating their intellectual property with regards to Google’s mobile platform, Android. Lawsuit aside, what do you guys think? Where would RIM and Palm stand today if Oracle had decided to purchase either company?
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