<story><title>Oracle Buys NetSuite for $9.3B</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-28/oracle-buys-netsuite-in-deal-valued-at-about-9-3-billion</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbro</author><text>Can&amp;#x27;t Amazon, Google, and Facebook (less sure about the others) all essentially be characterized as Berkshire Hathaway?&lt;p&gt;I.e. Develop a business that generates large cash flows, then relentlessly plow that money into more profitable side ventures. Except in this case they didn&amp;#x27;t buy an insurance company and instead developed a product that generated those flows.</text></item><item><author>chollida1</author><text>&amp;gt; The relationship between Oracle and NetSuite goes back decades. Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s CEO, previously ran Oracle’s marketing operations in the 1990s.  Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is NetSuite’s largest investor. As of March, Ellison and his family owned about 45.4 percent of NetSuite’s common stock, according to a company filing. Ellison has “control over approval of significant corporate transactions,’’ according to the filing.&lt;p&gt;Hmm, I wonder if the NetSuite board will approve this:)&lt;p&gt;Man, Microsoft has its OS and Office revenue to&lt;p&gt;Google and Facebook have their advertising revenue&lt;p&gt;Oracle has its licensing revenue&lt;p&gt;Amazon has its everything store revenue.&lt;p&gt;Apple has its iPhone revenue.&lt;p&gt;The big tech incumbents all figuratively print money each quarter.&lt;p&gt;If the long reported bubble burst ever gets around to happening, it&amp;#x27;s hard not to see them as the big winners.  With piles of cash on hand and cash reserves growing can anyone make the case that they don&amp;#x27;t become the lender of last resort to cash strapped startups?&lt;p&gt;Side note, I&amp;#x27;m surprised that Oracle is still running with Safra Catz and Mark Hurd as co-CEO&amp;#x27;s.   I figured that that setup along with a very strong willed founder in Ellison, would cause some spectacular implosion at some point:)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikeryan</author><text>I think you&amp;#x27;re missing the way Warren Buffett and Berkshire invests.&lt;p&gt;He takes low risk, profitable companies with proven track records and strong management teams.  Geico, Fruit of the Loom, building products and materials etc. Its a very different mindset then what Google is doing when it invests in self driving cars.&lt;p&gt;Every company thats profitable re-invests those profits in some way. Trying to lump the way Google or Amazon uses their excess cash is different then the way Facebook does (Facebook builds moats mostly) and definitely different then the way Berkshire does.</text></comment>
<story><title>Oracle Buys NetSuite for $9.3B</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-28/oracle-buys-netsuite-in-deal-valued-at-about-9-3-billion</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ethbro</author><text>Can&amp;#x27;t Amazon, Google, and Facebook (less sure about the others) all essentially be characterized as Berkshire Hathaway?&lt;p&gt;I.e. Develop a business that generates large cash flows, then relentlessly plow that money into more profitable side ventures. Except in this case they didn&amp;#x27;t buy an insurance company and instead developed a product that generated those flows.</text></item><item><author>chollida1</author><text>&amp;gt; The relationship between Oracle and NetSuite goes back decades. Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s CEO, previously ran Oracle’s marketing operations in the 1990s.  Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is NetSuite’s largest investor. As of March, Ellison and his family owned about 45.4 percent of NetSuite’s common stock, according to a company filing. Ellison has “control over approval of significant corporate transactions,’’ according to the filing.&lt;p&gt;Hmm, I wonder if the NetSuite board will approve this:)&lt;p&gt;Man, Microsoft has its OS and Office revenue to&lt;p&gt;Google and Facebook have their advertising revenue&lt;p&gt;Oracle has its licensing revenue&lt;p&gt;Amazon has its everything store revenue.&lt;p&gt;Apple has its iPhone revenue.&lt;p&gt;The big tech incumbents all figuratively print money each quarter.&lt;p&gt;If the long reported bubble burst ever gets around to happening, it&amp;#x27;s hard not to see them as the big winners.  With piles of cash on hand and cash reserves growing can anyone make the case that they don&amp;#x27;t become the lender of last resort to cash strapped startups?&lt;p&gt;Side note, I&amp;#x27;m surprised that Oracle is still running with Safra Catz and Mark Hurd as co-CEO&amp;#x27;s.   I figured that that setup along with a very strong willed founder in Ellison, would cause some spectacular implosion at some point:)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>heisenbit</author><text>They may use lot&amp;#x27;s of cash, they may be plowing, they may be relentless but their track record is decidedly mixed. Building franchises from smaller seedlings is hard and risky. Not comparable with Berkshire Hathaway that focuses on low risk investments. They are more acting like venture funds.&lt;p&gt;Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have managed to build some new profitable businesses over time with Amazon having done the greatest leap. The advertisement giants seem to struggle to gain traction - lots of projects but revenue streams less impressive.</text></comment>