FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Executive departure may delay Oracle plan

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Executive departure may delay Oracle plan

Executive departure may delay Oracle plan
By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Published: October 16 2007 22:46 | Last updated: October 16 2007 22:46

Oracle’s ambitious plan to unify the software applications it assumed through acquisitions appeared on Tuesday to be heading for a delay, following news that the executive in charge of the project is to leave the company.

John Wookey’s elevation two years ago to run Project Fusion put him in one of the most high-profile positions in the company following its purchases of PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and other smaller companies.

By unifying these companies’ software applications on a single-code base, Fusion is intended to create integration between the various products, making it a central part of Oracle’s long-term strategy to compete with SAP.

Oracle refused to comment on Mr Wookey’s position. Yet one person close to the company said he would leave early next year, after a transitional period. The job of overseeing the Fusion work has been passed to Thomas Kurian, who will combine it with responsibility for Oracle’s middleware, the software layer on which the applications depend.

The shake-up has also led to greater responsibilities for Charles Rozwat, executive vice-president of server technologies.

The upheaval has prompted speculation that Fusion has fallen behind schedule. Large parts of the software seem likely to appear next year as planned, according to the person close to Oracle, though this person stopped short of saying the entire project would be completed next year.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007