All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
After stirring up yet another cloud of speculation that he will buy Apple Computer, Larry Ellison set up an electronic mailbox on Thursday to receive suggestions from Apple employees, customers, and shareholders.
The database king is apparently leading an undisclosed investor group interested in buying 60 percent of Apple and tossing out its top management. Disclosing no details of his plan, the Oracle CEO invited Apple people to respond to a questionnaire asking what he should do if he does get his hands on the ailing computer maker.
The questionnaire has not been posted on the Web, an Oracle spokesperson said. However, it was included in an Oracle press release that specified that Ellison's interest in acquiring Apple is personal and independent of Oracle. No statements or actions were attributed to Ellison in the release, which didn't confirm his interest in acquiring Apple, but instead referred to an interview in the San Jose Mercury News. Ellison approved the release but was unavailable for interviews, the Oracle spokesperson said.
"I wonder if he's using Oracle money to tabulate the survey responses," quipped an employee in Apple's Advanced Technology Group, who said the buyout rumors were taking a back seat to "a really positive week of people getting back to work" after last week's layoffs. Apple is in the midst of restructuring, including 4,100 layoffs worldwide.
An Oracle mailbox has been established for responses to the questionnaire, which asks respondents to describe their relationship to Apple (employee, customer, etc.); how Apple can benefit from new management; and what should be the top priority of new management "presuming the successful acquisition by the Ellison investor group."
Apple officials declined to comment on Ellison's most recent talk of buying Apple. Thursday's news story was the second this month in which Ellison boasted of plans to buy Apple and reinstall his "best friend" Steve Jobs at the helm. In a similar article published by Fortune earlier this month, Ellison was quoted as saying: "Steve (Jobs is) the only one who can save Apple." Jobs, however, has repeatedly said he isn't interested in expanding the advisory role he now plays in the company he founded.
