Salesforce.com has turned its boardroom into a tool for poking and prodding the egos at Oracle. The CRM company today added former PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway to its director list. Yes, Conway has turned on his old staffers apparently with revenge in mind.

Like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Conway once served under Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. This trio hasn't had the prettiest relationship since with Salesforce looking to take PeopleSoft's business, Oracle taking PeopleSoft and now Oracle looking to take Salesforce's business. In fact, Oracle recently upped the competitive rhetoric, saying it would like "to crush (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/30/oracle_crush_salesforce/)" Salesforce.com instead of just buying it. Larry loves his sport.

You've got to believe that Benioff brought Conway on board as a type of political jab. After all, he hasn't always voiced the most respect for Conway's management style.

"I think this could bury him," Benioff told one magazine (http://www.insightexec.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=111955&d=101&h=817&u=816+conway+salesforce&hl=en&client=safari) about PeopleSoft's bid for JD Edwards. "He's trying to buy himself market share, but he's buying the past, not the future. He's doing something non-strategic."

Similar statements have been common between both Benioff and Conway, as they battled for attention.

Now, there's only room for niceties.

"We are delighted that Craig is joining the board," said Benioff. "Craig is a seasoned executive who brings a wealth of industry and business knowledge that will benefit salesforce.com . . . Craig's strong operational credentials will be valuable a contribution to our company and we look forward to his guidance and counsel."

In other words, "Help us get revenge. Help us beat Oracle." ®

Related stories

Salesforce.com welcomes CRM lapse (25 May 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/salesforce_appexchange_oem_microsoft/
Salesforce suffers gridlock as database collapses (22 December 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/22/salesforce_outage/
PeopleSoft becomes one with Oracle Fusion (13 December 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/13/oracle_certification_peoplesoft/
Oracle's Ellison donating $122m to charities and attorneys (23 November 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/23/ellison_shares_settlement/
Oracle wants to 'crush' Salesforce.com for fun (30 September 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/30/oracle_crush_salesforce/
Lacklustre Larry takes a pop at SAP (22 September 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/22/ellison_keynote_openworld/
Big-ticket acquisition layover for Oracle (22 September 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/22/oracle_big_deals/
Oracle conquers Siebel at $10.66 a share (12 September 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/12/oracle_buys_siebel/
Microsoft must woo partners (8 July 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/08/_microsoft_partners/
VCs warm to LAMP and services (30 May 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/30/vcs_warm_to_lamp/
Siebel acts to reassure (9 May 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/09/siebel_turnaround_strategy/
Squeezing CRM into the mid-market (26 April 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/26/mid_market_crm/