Oracle CFO Harry You jumps ship after 8 months to become the CEO at consulting firm BearingPoint. Co-president Safra Catz will serve as the interim CFO until a permanent replacement is found.

Oracle has upped its Retek offer from $9 to $11.25 per share, a figure which is 2 percent above SAP’s latest bid of $11.

Richard Byrom at OracleAppsBlog posts some notes and insights on the public timelines for merging the software branches of Oracle Apps, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards ERP packages.

An article looking at Oracle’s aggressive takeover attempts Circa 2005.

A further installment in the ongoing Retek bidding war between Oracle and SAP. SAP counters Oracle’s last bid with a 22% increase to $11 per share but includes a $25 million termination fee if Retek walks away from the deal.

A look at White Box Enterprise Linux

A look at factors to consider when contemplating a database server consolidation, with ways to reduce Oracle licensing costs depending on your business needs.

Jonathan Gennick shares his experience from The Hotsos Symposium, the most hardcore annual Oracle technology conference, period.

This article takes further look at Oracle’s attempt to outbid SAP for retail software specialist Retek and the growing animosity between the two companies. Link to article.

Database Trends & Applications 5-Minute Briefing lists preliminary 2004 database market results from market research firm IDC. Interestingly, the worldwide market for RDBMS (relational database management systems) shows 11.6% growth in 2004.