Oracle sued by a shareholder who alleges its lack of progress in diversity amounts to 'dishonesty'

Oracle is being sued by a shareholder who alleges the IT titan has not been truthful and honest in its efforts to create greater racial diversity within its workforce. The claim was filed on Thursday last week, the day before America shut up shop for the 4 July long weekend, in the US District Court for the Northern District …

[karlkarl]

"Asks that at least three Board members give up their seats for diverse replacements"

That is a great idea. They could source some diverse replacements, such as one with a background in networking, one with hardware, one with maths.

As it stands there is probably no diversity. All business and law degrees with skills in nothing but generating profits.

[macjules]

Those would be: Larry's cat, Larry's dog and Larry's pet tortoise named Donald.

[SundogUK]

"...with skills in nothing but generating profits." Which is what they are required to do and were hired to do.

[nematoad]

Hubris

"Oracle responded by suing the government ...claiming it has no authority over the company."

This seems to be trend in boardrooms across the world. These corporations have got so big and have so many law-makers in their pockets that they really do believe that they are above the law. The likes of Mark Zuckerberg cocking a snook at Parliament here in the UK and refusing to appear at a parliamentary hearing is a symptom of this. Added to this is the appalling Investor State Dispute System ISDS by which companies can take a country to a form of kangaroo court in order to impose its will on a sovereign nation.

I know a lot of people, including myself, consider company accountants to be the lowest form of corporate life but I'm changing my mind. It now seems as if the legal department is taking control and causing untold harm to countries and people throughout the world.

I reckon Shakespeare had it right in Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2 when he wrote "Let's kill al the lawyers."

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2

Those great words should be modified to say.

"Lets Kill all the Lawyers and start with those in Politics"

[Anonymous Coward]

No fan of Oracle, but the following is unsubstantiated as no evidence has been cited to support each claim : "which has resulted in racial discrimination in its leadership positions and otherwise to the detriment of the Oracle shareholders”.

OTOH if they hired someone specifically for their race that would be racial discrimination.

[Anonymous Coward]

Positive discrimination is still discrimination.

If I was on the board, or in any job, I'd want to know I was there on my own merit, not because of the color of my skin.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's call this what it is - a racist lawsuit

Isn't it racist to say Oracle should fire 3 white people so 3 blacks can replace them?

By all means fire a lawsuit to try and prove that lesser ability white candidates were chosen above non-white if this happened (haven't got a clue if this is true or not - but if so that's a valid complaint and one I would back) but the assumption that because the board is mainly white they must all be racist is pure racism itself

[ghp]

Re: Let's call this what it is - a racist lawsuit

This "ability" you're referring to, would that be pocket size?

[nautica]

I thought I had a shoe-in for Larry. And then I thought some more.

..."The lawsuit seeks, among other things...for three of its Board members...be replaced by...minority members...".

I want to be the FIRST to be considered as a replacement because of my overarching qualifications as a 'minority member':

I am a STRAIGHT, monogamous heterosexual ENGINEER (with a Professional Engineering License to prove it), who actually understands and does real, honest-to-by-God engineering; and who is not from California. I think I've got the "minority" part nailed--you can't get more "minority" than all this; particularly the part about being a real engineer on the board of a high-tech outfit nowadays. And straight, to boot.

Oh, wait...I'd probably have to actually move to California. And I'm white. And I do not and WILL NOT abide all the CoC horse-shit all the "tech" companies are caving in to.

Never mind...

[bregister]

Once upon a time

Oracle was a great company to work for and had a great product.

Companies have lifecycles:

founding -> entrepreneur -> engineers -> accountants -> lawyers -> bankrupcy

;-(

[Cliffwilliams44]

Show me the money!

Why do these ridiculous law suit happen? Because these low life lawyers know that they can drag them out and cost the company so much money they the will settle for millions of $$$ with some placating statement that won't change things at all. But the lawyers will get a nice fat payday!