Oracle Chief Passes on Apple--for Now

Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison said he’s decided not to try to buy Apple Computer Inc.--at least for now. In a statement, Ellison said he’s not talking with potential investors, Apple shareholders or Apple executives, though he left open the possibility of acquiring some Apple stock as an investment. He also might “revisit in the future his decision regarding an acquisition or control of that firm,” the statement said. On March 26, Ellison said he was putting together an investor group to possibly buy Cupertino-based Apple, which he said he believed was being mismanaged. The company has lost about $1.5 billion in the last six quarters amid declining sales, and it’s in the midst of its second restructuring in little more than a year. Apple executives chided Ellison’s statements, repeating that the company wasn’t for sale, and analysts wondered about his strategy. “There’s a question as to whether he was serious in the first place,” said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst with Dataquest, a market research firm in San Jose.