The tech industry at the moment is all about collaboration and open-source, replacing the ideals of proprietary technology and vendor lock-in.
Looking past the plethora of collaborative reports, roundtables and awards for being the best partner, some companies downright hate each other.
To highlight the fact that the tech industry isn’t all holding hands and braiding each other’s hair, here are the top five recent tech feuds.
1. Oracle v SAP
The rivalry goes back a few years; in 2007 Oracle sued SAP for copyright infringement regarding a former subsidiary TommorowNow. Amongst the legal kerfuffle a lot was said and feelings were obviously hurt.
A war of words continues to this day, with both sides taking little to no prompting to air their dislike of each other.
Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP, said of Oracle: "The old twentieth century model that Oracle has chosen to replicate is one of the past, and history will play it out that way," ouch.
Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who is never shy to express his opinion, said that SAP won’t have any of its mainstay apps in the cloud till 2020, quipping: "2020. A terrible year to get into the cloud."
2. Uber v Lyft
Uber is in the news pretty much every day for one controversial reason or another, whether its seemingly angering whole countries or getting in trouble for its data use.
The rivalry between these two companies revolves around accusations that both sides were trying to poach drivers and cancel rides.
Uber even admitted to running a co-ordinated campaign to recruit Lyft drivers and also undermine its rivals fundraising efforts.
Travis Kalanick, Uber CEO, told Vanity Fair about undermining fundraising by speaking to Lyft’s investors, saying: "Just so you know, we’re going to be fund-raising after this, so before you decide whether you want to invest in them, just make sure you know that we are going to be fund-raising immediately after.’
Lyft for its part were offering $500 and free tacos to entice Uber drivers to join the company.
3. Jawbone v Fitbit
The battle for the fitness wearable market is intense, with a number of good options available to consumers. With this intense battle has come claims of poaching employees and alleged stealing of trade secrets.
Jawbone has sued Fitbit three times in just two months and is seeking unspecified damages.
Fitbit defended itself to CBR, saying: "As the pioneer and leader in the connected health and fitness market, Fitbit has no need to take information from Jawbone or any other company.
"We are unaware of any confidential or proprietary information of Jawbone in our possession and we intend to vigorously defend against these allegations."
This certainly has the look of something that is likely to drag on as both compete for dominance of the market.
4. SAP v Tableau
This rivalry comes from two companies competing for market share in the data analytics market. Steve Lucas, President of SAP platform solutions went into what bordered on a rant about dead-end technology.
Lucas picked out Tableau for criticism, referring to the company as Voldemort, before saying: "The Tableau product is s**t, it’s a dead end technology."
Speaking to CBR, James Eiloart, VP, Tableau responded by saying: "It’s far from sh*t, it’s quite profound and it’s definitely not dead-end."
For the full response from Tableau click, here.
5. Samsung v Apple
Market rivalry really does bring the worst out of tech companies. The competing firms have filed over 40 lawsuits against each other.
The suits revolve around patent infringement and have seen Apple awarded $119 million for one lawsuit and in another case Samsung was ordered to pay $1bn.
A rumour circulated the Internet claiming that Samsung had opted to pay the $1bn in nickels, while this would have been amusing, it didn’t actually happen.
Samsung did however, poke fun at Apple’s early adopters who stand in line for the company’s products – a quick search will show you what they think.
Despite the seemingly never ending lawsuits, the two companies have worked together, with Samsung providing key components for Apple’s iOS devices.
