Oracle CFO Leaves after Four Months of Service

An anonymous reader writes "Oracle's CFO and Co-President Greg Maffei has quit. He will be succeeded by Safra Catz, who has been with Oracle for a while, and it will be interesting to see how long she lasts. Before Maffei, Harry You was CFO for 9 months, and before him was Jeff Henley. What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle?"

Comments

Money

[msbsod]

CFO's earn so much that 9 months are enough for the rest of their life.

CFO Leaving is bad news.

[catwh0re]

When the CFO leaves, it's usually because they think they're in a sinking ship.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[Locke2005]

Or they want to leave before they get indicted. If a CFO leaves just before a quarterly report, it generally means he is resigning to avoid committing perjury by signing a report he knows to be false. I beleive this report was intentionally delayed also, which is further evidence that there might be statements in the report that nobody wants to sign their name to.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[l0ungeb0y]

"When the CFO leaves, it's usually because they think they're in a sinking ship."

Yeah, Oracles obviously in the direst of direly dire straights....
I mean really rough times...
Yes, the shio is sinking!

I suspect Netcraft will confirm Oracles death any moment now.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[geekoid]

well, if they are trying to create deceptive profit reports, that would be a good reason a CFO would leave. It would also indicate a problem with the company.

Not saying they are sinking, but don't just assume there not having issues. Everyone thought Enron was in good shape, until the very last minute.

Now we have Sarbanes Oxley, a good reason for CFO to not look the other way.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[queenb**ch]

High turn over in upper management means:

1) Legal fears - criminal or civil

2) Another C-level guy that no one can stand

3) Company is tanking

My personal vote is for #2 and I suspect his initials are L.E.

2 cents,

Queen B

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[Dwonis]

MSFT is a sinking ship, but it's a vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big ship that will take an equally long time to sink -- long enough that it might end up being repaired before it's too late. :P

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[marktoml]

More to the point he is not one to turn over control or let go of the rudder--even slightly. I rather doubt the CFO was allowed to do much and thus felt they couldn't be fully effective. Until he finds one that suits him the way Henley did (i.e. one he will let do the job) the shuffle will undoutedly continue.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[khallow]

He spent 7 years at MS and 5 years as CEO of 360networks which tanked (he took it through bankrupcy court. So he doesn't have a flighty record or a record of bailing out when the going gets rough. If I were an Oracle shareholder, I'd want to know why Oracle can't keep CFO talent.

Re:CFO Leaving is bad news.

[Nutria]

MSFT is a sinking ship, but it's a vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big ship that will take an equally long time to sink -- long enough that it might end up being repaired before it's too late. :P

I love Linux just as much as the next guy (and has been my only home desktop for 5 years), but unlike DEC & Sun, MSFT's revenue keeps on increasing at an incredible pace.

When they have flat (not declining, but flat) revenues for 3 straight years, then I'll believe that it's sinking.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=MSFT&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=MSFT&annual

One Word:

[Doktor Memory]

"Larry"

Re:One Word:

[Scaba]

No, no - they keep getting hired away by Hank Scorpio of Globex Corporation.

CFO shuffle?

[ral315]

"What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle?" We didn't mean to cause any trouble; We're just doin' the CFO Shuffle.

Re:CFO shuffle?

[rob_squared]

Please do not eat CFO Shuffle.

Not a good sign...

[csmacd]

CFOs depart quickly because they see tyranical leadership, bad financial situation, or both. Sounds like there are some serious problems in Oracle's financial sector.

Dirty Kitchen

[Deathbane27]

I imagine Oracle's financials are like a messy kitchen. Cleaning it doesn't sound like too bad of a job until you actually walk in and see it... Yes, I live in a bachelor pad.

Up close and personal with Biker Spike

[wintermute42]

What's with the CFO shuffle at Oracle?

Oh, nothing more than fear of doing jail time.

Seriously, after Tyco, WorldCom and Enron, a CFO that is asked to support accounting that might be considered questionable bears some serious risks (as they should). The compensation just does not justify the risk of jail time. At least not for your typical CFO.

Life at Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anonymously 'cause I still want a job...
I've been consulting for Oracle for a couple years now and I'm not surprised by this. I get reorg'ed every three months at the minimum, I can't count the number of managers I've had since I've been working here - most know my name only by my expense reports. Every so often my cell phone rings and the voice on the other end says "Hi, I'm ****, your new manager." Why would it be any different in the adminisphere?
I've worked for companies big and small over the years and while the job has its good points, the constant turnover isn't one of them

Re:Life at Oracle

[gentlemoose]

I was with Oracle for 5 years. As I'm no longer with them, I don't fear for my job. AC up there, however, as an Oracle consultant, good call.

Oracle reorgs its stovepipes annually, and there are divisional and departmental reorgs that shake out for months at a time in the aftermath of the larger reorgs. It happens. No big deal.

Safra, I encountered once. Not.the.most.pleasant.experience.of.my.life.

Re:Life at Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

I left Oracle as a sysadmin after only 2 months on the job in their flagship datacenter. The entire organization from the top down is ruled by fear. Fear of the guy above you. I was in constant concern for my job the entire time, not because I couldn't perform, but afraid that I would do something politically wrong. And I was just a sysadmin!

It sucked, bigtime. Though they did have a crazy amount of servers and a whole buttload of technology.

Everything was to be feared, however.

Re:Life at Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

After having worked at least 60 hours so far this week, I read your first line -- no joke -- as:

"I left Oracle as a sysadmin after only 2 months on the job as a pole dancer."

I thought, "Woohoo ... great, a troll that might actually be an amusing joke. I could use a joke right about now."

Then I realized I really have to ditch this job that I'm working so much at every week to the point that I'm starting to see things that just aren't there. Hafta wonder though ... pole dancer?! Where the hell is my mind right now???

But yah, that would've made for a heck of a funny story...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Guilt

[lucm]

One just can't buy an Oracle database license. Accountants, lawyers and engineers must be involved to find out what insane amounts you will have to feed the monster every year. Basically, it's cheaper to have a SQL Server 4-processor license than hiring the experts required to calculate your Oracle yearly premium for the same hardware.

So my guess is that either the CFOs feel bad about selling incredibly overpriced products, or they just plain don't understand how the hell they can manage all these crazy contracts.

When Microsoft licensing is the low-cost alternative to your product, there is something terribly wrong.

Re:Guilt

[geekoid]

except MSs product is not in the same league as Oracle.

Furry Me

[Swamii]

Harry You

There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere.

Error in article.

[Anonymous Coward]

> You was CFO for 9 months

What? No I wasn't.

Larry

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason the CFOs have found it disturbing that Larry expects them to cut off their pinky if there are profit warnings :)

Oracle CFO Leaves after Four Months of Service.

[cgenman]

Oracle CFO Leaves after Four Months of Service.

He must have finally gotten a database up and running.

It's Larry Ellison

[cornice]

Q - What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison?

A - God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison.

Re:Old Microsoft Money Wizard

[toddbu]

He was also the last well-respected Microsoft CFO. While Maffei was in charge, Microsoft could literally do nothing wrong financially. When the earnings were announced, he'd say something like "don't expect good results next quarter" and the stock would skyrocket. When Connors replaced him, it was almost the exact opposite. Connors would say virtually the same thing, and the stock would tank. Microsoft has definitely suffered from the leadership vacuum that Maffei's departure left.

Measuring The Depth Of The Muck In Months.

[Phat_Tony]

Who knows, maybe they've just had an unfortunate series of personal crises or similar unrelated coincidences that don't reflect poorly on the company.

Or, maybe it takes from four to nine months to shovel to the bottom of the accounting muck at Oracle. At that point, a CFO reaches the inescapable conclusion that they must either:
1. Issue a radical restatement of earnings for one or more previous quarters in their next financial report.
2. Commit perjury.
If the CEO and board disagree with the necessity of revising past financial statements, and the CFO doesn't feel like taking his chances with committing fraud (especially in the current post-scandel atmosphere), then it's time to shop for a new CFO. At the least, it will give the higher-ups a few more months to inconspicuously sell some stock while the next CFO's still busy shoveling.