John Wookey taking new job at Oracle arch rival, source says; SAP declines to comment

John Wookey, who left his position as senior vice president of applications development at oracle Corp. last fall, is taking a job with Oracle's bitter rival, SAP AG, according to a source with knowledge of Wookey's plans.

SAP spokesman Saswato Das declined to confirm or deny the hiring of Wookey when reached on Monday. "We always want to inform our employees about any company news first," Das said. "We have nothing to say on this matter until we have a chance to brief our people."

Oracle officials didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on the matter, nor could Wookey himself be reached. It wasn't clear what his role at SAP would be.

Wookey was a key figure behind Oracle's long-percolating Fusion Applications strategy, which will combine elements of the vendor's various business software lines into a new suite. His departure from Oracle in October 2007 prompted questions about the status of the Fusion project, but the precise reasons why Wookey left haven't been publicized.

Since his departure from Oracle, Wookey has seemingly kept a low profile, perhaps due to a noncompete agreement. Meanwhile, Oracle still hasn't set a firm release date for the initial version of the Fusion suite, but company officials said in September that they hope to deliver the applications to early users before the end of next year.

The news of Wookey's apparent hiring by SAP prompted a thumbs-up from China Martens, an analyst at The 451 Group. Wookey "brings a wealth of ERP experience to SAP, both from his days at Oracle and at Ross Systems," Martens said. Ross Systems, an Atlanta-based ERP vendor, was acquired by Hong Kong-based CDC Corp. in 2003 and now is part of that company's CDC Software unit.