Sometimes, CEO's do good things; PeopleSoft/Oracle

[Atman]

Did anyone catch this in the Sunday papers? I don't have links here, but the founder of PeopleSoft, which was acquired by Oracle, is taking the billion-plus dollars he profited from the deal, and offering grants to the PeopleSoft employees, to help them relocate, retrain, or just survive. Out of his own pocket.

Mergers are going to happen. It is how the boss-men treat the employees in the process that makes the difference. This guy should receive saint-hood, but the corporatocrisy will likely harangue him for making the rest of them look bad.

[billbuckhead]

1. Larry Ellison as a saint

I guess anythings possible.

[Misunderestimator]

3. That would be impossible.... Ellison is a horror.

The OP is referring to the Peoplesoft CEO, not Oracle.

[Atman]

4. Not Ellison...the PeopleSoft guy

I have no clue what Ellison is doing.

[Misunderestimator]

2. I have only heard that Oracle is treating its acquired employees very

badly... they have laid off many of them, and others are leaving in droves. Peoplesoft (at least initially) was a rather progressive company to work for... Oracle is the opposite.

Is it Conway doing this? Where did you read it? I can't find anything on it.

[Atman]

5. NYT Sunday. I'll have to dig it up...already in the recycle bin

nt

[TahitiNut]

7. Oracle has a decade-long reputation for being a repressive workplace.

Age discrimination runs rampant along with obsessive workaholism - 60 hours a week is 'expected.'

[Atman]

6. I found the story; Duffield, not Conway

A Parting Gift at PeopleSoft

By ROBERT JOHNSON

Published: June 12, 2005

People who start companies that eventually grow big are routinely enriched when they sell them to competitors. But it's unusual for these executives to take financial responsibility for the many workers displaced in the consolidation that follows.

David A. Duffield, the founder and former chief executive of PeopleSoft, a business software company, isn't just walking away from the thousands of workers who have been laid off since the Oracle Corporation acquired it last December after a bitter takeover battle.

Instead, he is giving grants of up to $10,000 each to many former PeopleSoft employees who lost their jobs and have had problems finding work. The grants, which have already totaled about $800,000, are made through a fund called Safety Net, which started operating on April 1. Mr. Duffield, 65, has endowed the fund with $10 million.

Dave Ogden, a former PeopleSoft manager chosen by Mr. Duffield to supervise the fund from a rented office in Walnut Creek, Calif., said recipients "are universally amazed that a former boss would reach out this way; they know he didn't have to."

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/business/yourmoney/12refresh.html?

[Misunderestimator]

8. Thanks for the link...

On second edit: Now I know why I was confused, Conwayand Duffield were both founders, Duffield served as CEO until 1999 when Conway took over until 2004. (AND Conway and Ellison were buddies.)

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/10/01/HNconwayboot_1.html

I guess Duffield was the good guy after all.

[Double T]

9. It is difficult to be a good person and please the likes of Wall Street