Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
Louis V. Gerstner Jr. is an American businessman best known for his tenure as chairman and CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002, during which he led the company's historic corporate turnaround by reversing plans to break up the organization and redirecting its strategy toward integrated solutions and e-business. He previously served as CEO of RJR Nabisco and held senior positions at American Express and McKinsey & Company. He is the chairman of Gerstner Philanthropies and was chairman of The Carlyle Group from 2003 to 2008. He passed away on December 27, 2025, at the age of 83.
“Oracle went to market in the 1980s, Larry Ellison, with another technology taken from IBM... And they're like, you don't want to be locked into IBM. Relational database, you could run anywhere. Come with us. Because the reason this is a joke is because Oracle locks you in more than anyone.”
Source→AI-extracted from podcast / newsletter / paper summaries. May contain errors.