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Certainly the theory that Oracle had no plans for Sun Microsystems following its acquisition, has been completely deflated. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison always wanted to be able to deliver database devices that come pre-configured, and Sun has given him the resources to deliver it. But besides a guest appearance by the manager of the San Francisco Giants and a rock-blasting video of the America's Cup race, last Sunday night's keynote at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco mostly featured Ellison pacing back and forth on stage reciting performance numbers.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been in love with the idea of "all-in-one" and "out-of-the-box" since before the turn of the century. In Matthew Symonds' portrait of Ellison entitled Softwar, he noted how four years prior to the book's publication, Ellison had had an epiphany: the software and hardware industries should never have separated. "If Detroit ran like Silicon Valley," the CEO told the author, "no one would sell cars, just parts."

But Ellison was lacking two key ingredients, which he doesn't lack now. One was Sun Microsystems, whose high-end UltraSPARC processor-based systems are credited with contributing to the very positive growth for Oracle reported just yesterday. The other key ingredient was former HP CEO, now Oracle President, Mark Hurd. Today, they've all come together to produce what Ellison had always envisioned: the Oracle database box.

Larry Ellison completed Oracle's purchase of Sun this week. Now he is making it clear he wants a professional basketball team.

There have been rumors for months that Ellison wanted to purchase the beleaguered Golden State Warriors, a National Basketball Association team out of the San Francisco Bay area.