Oracle Corp has targeted German software giant SAP AG in its European stronghold – the process manufacturing industry, Ray Lane, the database vendor’s chief of worldwide operations, indicated Wednesday at a Paris press conference. To that end, Oracle has quietly purchased 15% of somewhere-in California-based Data Logics Inc, a process manufacturing applications specialist. They will integrate their application with Oracle’s Financials and we will hire 15 specialists in Europe, because they don’t have a salesforce in Europe, to sell their solution, Lane said. In the context of the conference on Oracle’s recent agreement to buy Digital Equipment Corp’s Rdb business, Lane acknowledged that over time, I do believe that the database business will consolidate, but added that Oracle intends to bring out new versions of Rdb for the next few years. It’s the customer who will decide, he said. Lane said also that Oracle will introduce a Visual Basic-based object-oriented development tool for the desktop in January, and that Oracle7 for Windows will be available in October.
