Transition, not succession

摘要

Nothing has changed, except for the titles. That was the word from Oracle after Larry Ellison said on September 18th that he was resigning as chief executive. The firm he founded in 1977 is now the world's biggest maker of business software, with annual sales of $38 billion. Mr Ellison will stay on as executive chairman and focus on his main interest-technology. His old job will be split between Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, who already run the firm's operations. Though there may be little immediate effect, the title-shuffling may one day be seen as the start of an upheaval like the one ibm had to go through when smaller computers dethroned the mainframe in the 1980s and early 1990s. Big Blue almost went under in the process. Big Red-the colour of Oracle's logo-is unlikely to run such a risk, but the shift will not be easy.