California releases more Oracle e-mail
C|Net | at | by Mike
California legislators investigating a controversial contract with Oracle sifted through hundreds of pages of documents from the database giant late Tuesday, including e-mail in which key participants discussed how to present cost-savings estimates that are at the heart of the controversy. In response to a request from the legislative audit committee, which is investigating the $95 million no-bid contract, Oracle and its business partner, Logicon, have submitted a two-inch stack of documents. Among the papers were printouts of e-mail in which company employees discuss which government officials to approach about the deal, strategies for making the sale and how to calculate cost savings.
In one e-mail, Logicon employee Rajan Mittu and Greg Loos, a sales associate at Oracle's office in Rocklin, Calif., discuss how to characterize the value of California's many existing Oracle contracts. That issue is crucial to determining whether the deal was good for the state: Oracle claimed that California would save money by consolidating sales to various state agencies, but a state audit later determined that the contract included more "seat licenses" than were needed.