Customers and Free Market Choice Are Winners in Oracle vs. Rimini Street Verdict

Oracle confirmed in trial testimony that third-party support is lawful for Oracle licensees to purchase
Trial clarified permitted conduct and processes for vendors providing third-party support
No disruption of service for Rimini Street clients

LAS VEGAS, October 22, 2015Rimini Street, Inc., the leading independent provider of enterprise software support services for SAP SE’s (NYSE:SAP) Business Suite and BusinessObjects software and Oracle Corporation’s (NYSE:ORCL) SiebelPeopleSoftJD EdwardsE-Business SuiteOracle DatabaseOracle MiddlewareHyperionOracle Retail and Oracle Agile PLM software, today declared enterprise software customers and free market choice the biggest winners in the recent Oracle vs. Rimini Street civil trial. The Company also provided additional details regarding the October 13, 2015 verdict and other post-trial activities.

The jury verdict included the following findings:

  • Jury rejected Oracle’s damages claim of $246 million, instead awarded $50 million
  • Jury found Rimini Street infringed, but found the infringement “innocent”
  • Jury rejected Oracle’s claim that infringement was “willful”
  • Jury found that Oracle suffered no lost profits as a result of “innocent” infringement
  • Jury found violations of some computer access laws
  • Jury rejected Oracle’s claims for illegal tortious business conduct, such as inducing breach of contract and interference with Oracle’s business relationships
  • Jury rejected Oracle’s claims for punitive damages

Legality of Third-Party Support Confirmed

Detailed testimony and evidence provided by Oracle executives and witnesses in the trial confirmed that third-party support is lawful for Oracle licensees to purchase. The evidence presented at trial supported several important principles underlying Rimini Street’s operations and current service offerings: (a) Oracle licensees can choose not to renew their Oracle annual support; (b) Oracle licensees can select, switch to, and use a third-party support provider or self-support instead of renewing and paying Oracle for annual support services; (c) third parties like Rimini Street can legally offer third-party support options to Oracle licensees; and (d) support services can be provided to clients utilizing a remote access connection. These rights enable legal, free market choice for customers who want to shop a variety of different support vendors, services offerings, and pricing models.

Jury Found “Innocent” Infringement

The jury found that Rimini Street “innocently” infringed certain Oracle copyrights. The verdict reflected the jury’s assessment of the fair market value of a license for the actual use of Oracle’s copyrighted works. In determining “innocent infringement,” the court instructed the jury that:

“An infringement is considered ‘innocent’ when the Defendant has proved both of the following elements by a preponderance of the evidence:
1. The Defendant was not aware that its acts constituted infringement of the copyright; and
2. The Defendant had no reason to believe that its acts constituted an infringement of the copyright.”

A significant portion of conduct at issue in the case stemmed from Rimini Street previously offering its Oracle PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel customers the choice of providing Rimini Street with either remote access to development and test environments on client-hosted servers, or providing Rimini Street with copies of their Oracle software to build development and test environments on Rimini Street-hosted servers. The court had previously held that, based on a court ruling issued in 2014, Oracle PeopleSoft software license agreements generally do not permit Oracle software to be installed or copied on Rimini Street servers. In accordance with the ruling, Rimini Street ceased the use of Oracle software on its servers and transitioned to a remote access connection service model for all clients by July 2014.

Post-Trial Activities

With the jury verdict rendered, the parties will now engage in standard post-trial activities. Either party may file motions related to the jury’s findings. After the completion of the post-trial activities, either party may file an appeal from the court’s final judgment.

Injunction

An “injunction” is a court order that would prohibit or mandate certain activities or conduct that was found infringing or unlawful. Given the jury’s findings and the fact that Rimini Street ceased using the particular processes that Oracle challenged as infringing, Rimini Street does not believe that any injunction relating to any current Rimini Street support process is necessary or warranted.

Other Related Litigation

In 2014, Rimini Street filed a lawsuit against Oracle seeking a judicial finding that Rimini Street’s new development process and tools for PeopleSoft tax, legal, and regulatory updates, implemented by July 2014, do not infringe any Oracle copyrights. Oracle countersued, claiming alleged infringement of PeopleSoft copyrights. This litigation is in the discovery phase, and no trial date has been scheduled.

Customers and Free Market Choice Are Winners in Jury Verdict

“With the trial behind us, and with additional clarity for the industry regarding permitted support processes, Rimini Street is moving forward as the leading, global independent enterprise software support provider,” said Seth A. Ravin, Rimini Street’s CEO and chairman. “We remain focused on providing excellent service to clients, expanding worldwide service capabilities, and innovating the independent support marketplace. Recently, Rimini Street announced preliminary fiscal third quarter results that included 38 percent year-over-year revenue growth and 39 consecutive quarters of growth. Our commitment to the ideals of choice, value and excellent client service have never been stronger.”

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI) is a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner. The Company offers premium, ultra-responsive and integrated application management and support services that enable enterprise software licensees to save significant costs, free up resources for innovation and achieve better business outcomes. More than 2,000 global Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range of industries rely on Rimini Street as their trusted application enterprise software products and services provider. To learn more, please visit https://www.riministreet.com/, follow @riministreet on Twitter and find Rimini Street on Facebook and LinkedIn. (IR-RMNI)

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “may,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “continue,” “future,” “will,” “expect,” “outlook” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street’s business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, catastrophic events that disrupt our business, changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including inflation and interest rates, and general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which Rimini Street operates; adverse developments in pending litigation or in the government inquiry or any new litigation; our need and ability to raise additional equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the terms and impact of our outstanding 13.00% Series A Preferred Stock; changes in taxes, laws and regulations; competitive product and pricing activity; difficulties of managing growth profitably; the customer adoption of our recently introduced products and services, including our Application Management Services (AMS), Rimini Street Advanced Database Security, and services for Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud products, in addition to other products and services we expect to introduce in the near future; the loss of one or more members of Rimini Street’s management team; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street’s equity securities; and those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Rimini Street’s Annual Report on Form 10-K to be filed by March 16, 2020, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street’s future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street’s assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.

 

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© 2020 Rimini Street, Inc. All rights reserved. “Rimini Street” is a registered trademark of Rimini Street, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Rimini Street, the Rimini Street logo, and combinations thereof, and other marks marked by TM are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, and unless otherwise specified, Rimini Street claims no affiliation, endorsement, or association with any such trademark holder or other companies referenced herein.

Investor Relations Contact:
Dean Pohl
Rimini Street, Inc.
+1 203 347-4446
[email protected]

Media Relations Contact:
Michelle McGlocklin
Rimini Street, Inc.
+1 925 523-8414
[email protected]

Relações com investidores:

Dean Pohl

Rimini Street, Inc.

+1 925 523-7636 dpohl@riministreet.com
Relações com a mídia:

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