In Integrating Sun, Oracle Bets Big on a New Sales Strategy

At first it seemed like bad timing. Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison found his company going virtually head-to-head with Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs in dueling webcasts announcing major tech news on Jan. 27. It was no contest: Apple's iPad launch party easily overshadowed Oracle's get-together to highlight the completion of its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems -- so much so, that it appeared as if Oracle had made a rare publicity blunder. But maybe not.