Oracle pondered buying RIM, Palm in phone move: CEO

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison said the software maker had considered building its own smartphone to compete with Apple Inc and Google Inc, but decided it was a "bad idea" after a weeks-long cost and market analysis.

As part of that exhaustive internal analysis, he said, Oracle had pondered at one point buying Blackberry-maker Research in Motion Ltd and Palm -- a smartphone maker scooped up by Hewlett Packard Co.

On the second day of a legal battle between Oracle and Google over Java patents used in Android mobile software, Ellison added that Oracle felt it lacked in-house expertise on smartphones and hence considered acquisitions. But it ultimately decided to abandon the idea.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan and Dan Levine; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
Reuters