Oracle hikes some prices 40 percent

These are tough times and managers are trying to keep expenses down, but apparently no one told that to Oracle.

Oracle took an amazingly risky step, by raising the cost of some of its management options for its flagship database by 40 percent, according to a pricing list available on July 1, InfoWorld reports. And the price hikes weren't minor. Processor licenses for the company's diagnostic and tuning backs, as well as a database configuration management packs increased to $5,000, up from $3,500.

The article noted that list prices are rarely what companies actually pay for software, but it does raise the starting point for discount negotiations, making the final number higher than what customers previously might have expected. This may be a game of outfoxing the fox, Forrester Research analyst Ray Wang, told InfoWorld. It may allow an IT manager to get a bigger discount on a higher-priced product, making him look good to the bosses.

Whatever the game is, it's definitely another example of how rough the market has become. Be careful, strategic and tough.

For more on Oracle's price hikes:
- check out this InfoWorld.com article

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