Long-time friend of Steve Jobs and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently sat down for an interview with Charlie Rose of CBS News where he was asked how Apple might perform in the absence of Steve Jobs.
Long-time friend of Steve Jobs and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently sat down for an interview with Charlie Rose of CBS News where he was asked how Apple might perform in the absence of Steve Jobs. Suffice to say, Ellison isn’t confident that Apple has bright skies ahead. Calling Jobs brilliant and a modern-day Edison, Ellison points out that an Jobs-less Apple is something we’ve already seen.
Well, we already know. We saw. We conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve jobs, we saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs, now we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.
Rose followed up by asking if Ellison was shorting Apple, to which Ellison replied:
I’m not shorting Apple. I like Tim Cook. I think there are a lot of talented people there. … But Steve is irreplaceable.
Nonetheless, Ellison didn’t mince words in saying that Apple without Steve Jobs would not be as successful.
In the video below, Ellison also opines on Jobs’ last days, his views on Google CEO Larry Page and his thoughts on the recent NSA surveillance scandal.
As a historical point of interest, Ellison was once interested in acquiring Apple back in the late 90s when the company was struggling to remain viable.
