SAN FRANCISCO — Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz opened her roomy Los Altos Hills home to Sen. Barbara Boxer for a high-tech, exec-studded fundraiser on Nov. 7. The diminutive Boxer stood on her trademark box to address the crowd of 50, and later handed out boxer shorts to the likes of Symantec Chairman John Thompson, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and Hewlett-Packard General Counsel Michael Holston. The guests ponied up either $10,000, $2,400 or $1,000 each.
Two weeks later, Boxer and 58 other senators sent a letter to the European Union, scolding it for not wrapping up its investigation of a merger between Oracle and Sun Microsystems. The deal cleared U.S. antitrust review in August, but European regulators have been more concerned about the software giant’s market dominance. The letter was an unusual show of support for a merger, especially from a Senate that can hardly agree on anything.
