Oracle Japan Corp is to go public later next year on the Tokyo over-the-counter market in a highly unusual move that has its roots in the financial problems that Oracle Corp faced in 1991. Then Nippon Steel Corp stepped in with an $80m loan – and in return Oracle agreed that NSC could buy up to 25% of the shares in Oracle Japan before it went public. Thus Oracle Japan will become the first affiliate of a foreign software company to go public in Tokyo. Financial details of the transaction are hazy but NSC has bought three billion yen ($23.2m) of Oracle Japan shares as the company increased its share capital from 356.5m yen to 3.42bn yen. It seems unlikely that this represents a 25% stake as it would value Oracle Japan at less than $100m. NSC has been trying to diversify away from its steelmaking roots into faster growing industries and, when it began talks with Oracle in 1991, there was even speculation it might be making a bid for the whole company. In the event, the alliance was restricted to the Japanese market with NSC tailoring Oracle software for the Japanese market and using its extensive connections to find and maintain new customers. Under the latest deal, NSC has appointed one of its officials as vice president of the Oracle Japan and it will have a place on the board. The electronics division of NSC began a sales agent for Oracle products. The two have since co-operated on joint technology, and now plan to extend the relationship further to include customer support and consultation services.
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