September 9, 1996
Oracle Corp chairman and chief executive Larry Ellison said on Friday that the company will likely launch an aggressive advertising campaign in 1997 to promote its network computer, or "NC" concept.
"We're going to have a very aggressive television campaign around the network computer," Ellison told a group of reporters while in Chicago.
Ellison has toured the United States and Europe, meeting clients and news organizations, as part of a push to explain the NC and Oracle itself.
Despite revenues of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year 1996, Oracle is not exactly a household name. When I say I'm the CEO of Oracle people often say "Hmmm, never heard of them", he joked.
Ellison expects the campaign will be lauched in 1997, "when the NC reaches a level that we're confident anyone who wants one can get one."
On Thursday, International Business Machines unveiled its first network computer, a text book- sized computer, priced under $700.
Ellison said the key to the success of the computer is the participation of telephone companies who will host the networks. Oracle is in negotiations with many and has a software suite specifically for them. In the past Ellison said four large telephone companies have put in orders for NCs.