Oracle slips notes to Wall Street

In the classic movie, Take the Money and Run, Woody Allen's character, Virgil Starkwell, tries to rob a bank with a note that says "Please put $50,000 into this bag and act natural. I am pointing a gun at you." The bank teller can't read his handwriting and insists that it says "gub," not gun. After consulting with a colleague at the bank, the teller says, "Oh, I see. This is a holdup. May I see your gun?"

By the time the scene is done, the whole bank is arguing with Starkwell, and he is sent to the clink for ten years for attempted robbery. And presumably bad penmanship.

Larry Ellison is no Woody Allen, and instead of having a gub, he has a Sug - or rather, the future of Sun Microsystems - in his hand as Oracle today priced up $4.5bn in investment grade notes to finance its impending $5.6bn takeover of that server and software maker two weeks from now. If Sun's shareholders approve of the deal. While we won't know the outcome of the Sun shareholder vote until July 16, Oracle expects to settle three different debt offerings by July 8.

The three notes that Ellison slipped to Wall Street include: $1.5bn in notes that pay out 3.75 per cent interest per year that are due in 2014, $1.75bn in notes that pay 5 per cent and are due in 2019, and $1.25bn in notes that pay 6.125 per cent that are due in 2039. (Does any of us honestly think any of the IT players will be around in 30 years?)

You can watch the robbery scene from the movie here on YouTube if you've never seen it before. It is a lot more amusing than watching Sun get eaten by Oracle. That's for sure. ®