At least one Oracle executive giddy over the company's acquisition rampage appears to have let some M&A machismo get to his head. Charles Phillips, president at Oracle, felt a power rush and launched into an assault on Salesforce.com during a speech this week in New York.

Will Oracle buy Salesforce.com? Nope. It will destroy the wholesome maker of CRM software.

"In this case, I think it would be more fun to crush them," Phillips said, according to a Reuters report. "We see a lot of ways to compete with them. We will try that for a while."

Crush them? Oracle has certainly upped its competitive rhetoric into overdrive since clearing anti-trust hurdles in its purchase of PeopleSoft and convincing lawmakers that an Oracle buying spree helps the software industry and customers.

The database maker, however, isn't the only one going after Salesforce.com of late. Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer had some choice words for the software service provider at an event last month.

"People want hosted CRM," Ballmer said. "We will respond to and address that need. We expect to give Salesforce.com a very effective run for its money by having on-premise and hosted solutions over time."

Such attention indicates that Salesforce.com has become a serious force in the software industry. ®