Oracle considered making own smartphone

Or just buying RIM and Palm.

Oracle chief executive officer Larry Ellison said the software maker had considered building its own smartphone to compete with Apple and Google, 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 and Palm -- a smartphone maker scooped up by HP.

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.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan and Dan Levine; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)