The Maven: The Hidden Beauty of Acquisitions

There is a key to the seamless merging of so many newly acquired parts, Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle(ORCL Quote), pontificates in this morning's Telegraph, while on a yacht with a basketball court and with his involvement in the America's Cup yachting regatta starting up. That key is to remain ruthlessly focused.

While getting to that issue of narrow, brutal, tunnel-thin focus, Ellison does take the time to note that shareholders aren't asked to foot the bills for his hobbies and luxuries. Getting back to what Ellison calls an "innovative" acquisition strategy (others call it a more traditional tack of buying up everything that is not nailed down the moment natural growth appears to be slowing), he said his American Idol is General Electric(GE Quote).

"They take risks, they make decisions, they're incredibly disciplined and focused." No word whether Jack Welch, one-time king of soft-white light, ever managed his moving parts while risking motion sickness. But recent news from Oracle has been decent. Oracle, which reported good fourth-quarter sales growth, has spent more than $20 billion on acquisitions in the past year-plus, so the key numbers should come down the road.

Break 'Em Up

Speaking of companies led by a force of personality that gobbled up most everything that moved, Citigroup(C Quote) got big play in this weekend's Barron's.

Specifically, despite the focused efforts of former leader Sandy Weill, who has never been known, as Ellison is, for such non-business distractions such as sailing racing yachts into hurricanes with famously disastrous results, the company is unwieldy, the stock dead in the (figurative) water compared with other financial stocks. ...