Oracle Corporation - History - Overall Timeline

Overall Timeline

• June 16, 1977: Software Development Laboratories (SDL) is incorporated in Santa Clara, California by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
• 1978: Oracle Version 1, written in assembly language, runs on PDP-11 under RSX-11, in 128K of memory. Implementation separates Oracle code from user code. Oracle V1 is never officially released. The name Oracle comes from the code name of a CIA project which the founders had all worked on while at the Ampex Corporation.
• June 1979: SDL is renamed to Relational Software Inc. (RSI) and relocated to Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California. Oracle 2, the first version of the Oracle database software, as purchased by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, runs on PDP-11 hardware. The company decides to name the first version of its flagship product "version 2" rather than "version 1" because it believes customers might hesitate to buy the initial release of its product.
• October 1979: RSI actively promotes Oracle on the VAX platform (the software runs on the VAX in PDP-11 emulator mode).
• 1981: Umang Gupta joins RSI, where he writes the first business plan for the company and serves as Vice President and General Manager.
• February 1981: RSI begins developing tools for the Oracle Database, including the Interactive Application Facility (IAF), a predecessor to Oracle*Forms.
• 1982: RSI renames itself Oracle Systems Corporation in order to align itself more closely with its primary product.
• March 1983: Oracle Database is rewritten in C for portability and Oracle version 3 is released.
• April 1984: Oracle receives additional funding from Sequoia Capital.
• October 1984: Oracle version 4 is released, introducing read consistency.
• November 1984: Oracle database software is ported to the PC platform. The MS-DOS version (4.1.4) of Oracle runs in only 512K of memory. (Oracle for MSDOS version 5, released in 1986, runs in Protected Mode on 286 machines using a technique invented by Mike Roberts, among the first products to do so.)
• April 1985: Oracle version 5 is released – one of the first RDBMSs to operate in client-server mode.
• 1986: Oracle version 5.1 is released with support for distributed queries. Investigations into clustering begin.
• March 12, 1986: Oracle goes public with revenues of $55 million US$.
• August 1987: Oracle founds its Applications division, building business-management software closely integrated with its database software. Oracle acquires TCI for its project management software.
• 1988: Oracle version 6 is released with support for row-level locking and hot backups. The developers embedded the PL/SQL procedural language engine into the database but made no provision to store program blocks such as procedures and triggers in the database – this capability came in version 7. Users could submit PL/SQL blocks for immediate execution in the server from an environment such as SQL*Plus, or via SQL statements embedded in a host program. Oracle included separate PL/SQL engines in various client tools (such as SQL*Forms and Reports).
• 1989: Oracle moves its world headquarters to Redwood Shores, California. Revenues reach US$584 million.
• 1990: In the third quarter, Oracle reports its first ever loss; it lays off hundreds of employees. Ellison hires Michael S. Fields as President of Oracle U.S.A., Jeffrey O. Henley as CFO and Raymond Lane as COO.
• June 1992: Oracle 7 is released with performance enhancements, administrative utilities, application-development tools, security features, the ability to persist PL/SQL program units in the database as stored procedures and triggers, and support for declarative referential integrity.
• 1993: Oracle releases its "Cooperative Development Environment" (CDE), which bundles Oracle Forms, Reports, Graphics, and Book.
• 1994: Oracle acquires the database-product DEC Rdb (subsequently called Oracle Rdb) from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Oracle Rdb operates only on the OpenVMS platform (also a former product of DEC).
• June 1, 1995: Oracle Systems Corporation announces the merger of Oracle Corporation into Oracle Systems Corporation. This transaction eliminates the holding company structure and streamlines the operating company, Oracle Corporation, with the public holding company, Oracle Systems Corporation. As part of the merger, Oracle Systems Corporation is renamed Oracle Corporation and is the surviving entity incorporated as a Delaware corporation.
• June 21, 1995: Oracle Corporation announces new data-warehousing facilities, including parallel queries.
• November 1995: Oracle becomes one of the first large software companies to announce an Internet strategy when Ellison introduces the Network Computer concept at an IDC conference in Paris.
• 1996: Oracle releases Web Browser of the Oracle PowerBrowser.
• April 1997: Oracle releases the first version of Discoverer.
• June 1997: Oracle 8 is released with SQL object technology, Internet technology and support for terabytes of data.
• September 1997: Oracle Corporation announces a commitment to the Java platform, and introduces Oracle's Java integrated development environment, subsequently called Oracle JDeveloper.
• January 1998: Oracle releases Oracle Applications 10.7 Network Computing Architecture (NCA). All the applications in the business software now run across the web in a standard web browser.
• May 1998: Oracle Corporation releases Oracle Applications 11.
• April 1998: Oracle announces that it will integrate a Java Virtual Machine with Oracle Database.
• September 1998: Oracle 8i is released (the i stands for Internet).
• October 1998: Oracle 8 and Oracle Application Server 4.0 are released on the Linux platform.
• May 1999: Oracle releases JDeveloper 2.0, showcasing Business Components for Java (BC4J), a set of libraries and development tools for building database-aware applications.
• 2000: OracleMobile subsidiary is founded. Oracle 9i and Application Server is released. In May, Oracle announces the Internet File System (iFS), later re-branded as Oracle Content Management SDK.
• 2001: Ellison announces that Oracle saved $1 billion by implementing and using its own business applications.
• 2004: Oracle 10g is released (the g stands for Grid).
• December 13, 2004: After a long battle over the control of PeopleSoft, Oracle announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire PeopleSoft for $26.50 per share (approximately $10.3 billion).
• January 14, 2005: Oracle Corporation announces that it will reduce its combined workforce to 50,000, a reduction of approximately 5,000 following the take-over of PeopleSoft.
• September 2005: Oracle Corporation announces that it has agreed to acquire the private company Global Logistics Technologies, Inc., a global provider of logistics and transportation management software (TMS) solutions, through a cash offer.
• September 12, 2005: Oracle Corporation announces its purchase of Siebel Systems, a producer of CRM technologies and a provider of business intelligence software, for $5.8 billion.
• October 18, 2005: A serious security vulnerability in Oracle database password management is published by Joshua Wright of the Sans Institute and Carlos Cid of the University of London. Oracle Corporation replies that existing safeguards and following good industry practices were sufficient defenses. Oracle didn't close the underlying security hole until its release of the 11g DBMS in 2007.
• April 12, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces its acquisition of Portal Software, Inc. (OTC BB: PRSF.PK), a global provider of billing- and revenue-management solutions for the communications and media industry, at $4.90 per share, or approximately $220 million.
• October 25, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces Unbreakable Linux.
• November 2, 2006: Oracle Corporation announces that it has agreed to acquire Stellent, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEL), a global provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions, through a cash tender offer for $13.50 per share, or approximately $440 million.
• December 15, 2006: A majority of MetaSolv stockholders approves Oracle's acquisition of MetaSolv Software, a provider of operations support systems (OSS) software for the communications industry.
• 2007: Oracle 11g is released.
• March 1, 2007: Oracle announces an agreement to buy Hyperion Solutions Corporation (Nasdaq: HYSL), a global provider of performance-management software solutions, through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or approximately $3.3 billion. The acquisition officially took place on July 1, 2007.
• March 22, 2007: Oracle files a court case against a major competitor, SAP AG, in the Californian courts for malpractice and unfair competition.
• May 15, 2007 Oracle buys Agile Software Corporation
• October 16, 2007: Oracle confirms the impending departure of John Wookey, senior vice president for application development and head of its applications strategy, raising questions concerning the planned release and future of Oracle's Fusion Applications strategy.
• January 16, 2008: Oracle announces it will buy BEA Systems for $19.375 per share in cash for a total of "$7.2 billion net of cash."
• September 24, 2008: Oracle announces it will market servers and storage in a co-developed and co-branded data warehouse appliance named the HP Oracle Database Machine.
• January 27, 2010: Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems.
• March 17, 2010: Oracle launches Enterprise Manager Ops Center, a platform for managing physical and virtual Sun environments.
• April 16, 2010: Oracle agrees to acquire Phase Forward for approximately $685 million.
• July 5, 2010: Mexico Development Center begins to operate with offices in Guadalajara, Jalisco, known as the Mexican Sillicon Valley.
• July 29, 2010: Oracle is indicted for fraud by the US Department of Justice.
• November 23, 2010: Oracle wins $1.3 billion law suit against SAP – the largest software piracy judgment in history. While acknowledging the wrongdoings of its unit TomorrowNow, which was accused of massive illegal downloads of Oracle software, SAP seeks reduction of the jury award.
• March 24, 2011: Oracle announced fiscal 2011 Q3 GAAP total revenues were up 37% to $8.8 billion, while non-GAAP total revenues were up 36% to $8.8 billion.
• October 2011: Oracle Corporation acquires RightNow Technologies Inc. for $1.5 billion, to strengthen cloud services.
• February 9, 2012: Oracle announces acquisition of Taleo for $1.9 billion to add Talent Management products and services.
• May 23, 2012: Oracle announces the acquisition of social marketing platform Vitrue, for $300 million.
• June 5, 2012: Oracle announces the acquisition of Collective Intelligence, a market intelligence firm.
• July 10, 2012: Oracle announces the acquisition of social marketer Involver.