Oracle Mulled Buying RIM, Palm in Phone Move

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison said the software maker had considered building its own smartphone to compete with Apple Inc and Google Inc, but decided it was a "bad idea" after a weeks-long cost and market analysis.

As part of that exhaustive internal analysis, he said, Oracle had pondered at one point buying Blackberry-maker Research in Motion Ltd and Palm -- a smartphone maker scooped up by Hewlett Packard Co.

On the second day of a legal battle between Oracle and Google over Java patents used in Android mobile software, Ellison added that Oracle felt it lacked in-house expertise on smartphones and hence considered acquisitions. But it ultimately decided to abandon the idea.