Publisher Description

In a business where great risks, huge fortunes, and even bigger egos are common, Larry Ellison stands out as one of the most outspoken, driven, and daring leaders of the software industry. The company he cofounded and runs, Oracle, is the number one business software company. Perhaps even more than Microsoft's, Oracle's products are essential to today's networked world.

In "Softwar, " journalist Matthew Symonds gives readers exclusive and intimate insight into both Oracle and the man who made it and runs it. As well as relating the story of Oracle's often bumpy path to industry dominance, Symonds deals with the private side of Ellison's life. With unlimited insider access granted by Ellison himself, Symonds captures the intensity and, some would say, the recklessness that have made Ellison a legend.

With a new and expanded epilogue for the paperback edition that tells the story behind Oracle's epic struggle to win control of PeopleSoft, "Softwar" is the most complete portrait undertaken of the man and his empire — a unique and gripping account of both the way the computing industry really works and an extraordinary life.

Author Biography

Matthew Symonds is the Technology and Communications Editor of The Economist. His past titles include Editorial Director and Executive Editor of The Independent, a newspaper which he co-founded, and Director of Strategy at BBC Worldwide. Symonds lives in London with his wife and three children.

Review

Lisa Baertlein Reuters Software titan Larry Ellison has been busy scribbling footnotes to the most detailed account yet of his outsized life....He also responds and sometimes challenges the account of author Matthew Symonds -- a twist in presentation that adds a real-time feel to the 500-page biography. The New York Times The access [Symonds] got is apparent....This access gives the reader a rare window on Ellison's mind. Harvard Business Review A sympathetic and revealing portrait of an idiosyncratic executive and company....Entertaining. Financial Times An unusually candid study of how a tiny start-up...grew -- sometimes painfully -- into a Silicon Valley institution. BusinessWeek Symonds excels at letting readers into the 59-year-old Ellison's often turbulent personal life....[and] provides a wonderful image of an Ellison who is far from being all-business.

Review Quote

The New York TimesThe access [Symonds] got is apparent....This access gives the reader a rare window on Ellison's mind.

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