“Better to crush Salesforce.com than to buy it” were the soon-to-be-immortal words from Oracle's Charles Philips at a press briefing in New York, stunning the industry into a tizzy with wild words in an industry jaded by wild words.

"In this case I think it would be much more fun to crush them," he said at a press briefing in New York. "We see a lot of ways to compete with them. We will try that for a while."

Such bravado from a company known for well, bravado, and machismo and cowboy salespeople, and hostile takeovers and other cute little things-- one of the software industry’s entertaining aberrations that makes us wonder just how boring software could have been without Larry Ellison’s company.

However, Oracle’s been known to change its mind from time to time and eventually acquire companies it said it wouldn’t touch with a kryptonite stick.

Just ask Peoplesoft. Or Siebel.

Sadly for Salesforce.com-- a company earlier funded by Ellison and headed by former Ellison protégé Mark Beniof-- it’d just be foolish to bet against Oracle.The latter has a way of winning against the direst of circumstances.

Just ask Peoplesoft. Or Siebel.

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