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THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Would the court reporter
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please swear in the witness. |
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(Whereupon the witness was sworn) |
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CHARLES PHILLIPS, |
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having been first duly sworn, testified as follows: |
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EXAMINATION |
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BY MR. SCOTT: |
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Q. All right, Mr. Phillips, could you state your |
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name for the record, please. |
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A. Charles Phillips. |
Phillips 06-03-04 1
00007
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Q. All right, sir, your current position with
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Oracle I understand has changed since the last time
your |
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deposition was taken. |
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A. Yes, current title is now president. |
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Q. All right, sir, how long have you held the title
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of president of Oracle? |
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A. Since, I think, January of this year.
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Phillips 06-03-04 2
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Q. All right, sir, and with the title change, did
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you accumulate any additional duties and |
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responsibilities? |
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A. Yes. |
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Q. What are they? |
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A. I have the responsibility for field operations,
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so global consulting, global sales, global marketing,
and |
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alliances and channels. |
Phillips 06-03-04 3
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Q. All right, sir.
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MR. SCOTT: Let's get that marked. |
Phillips 06-03-04 4
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(Marked Deposition Exhibit No. 895)
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MR. SCOTT: Q. All right, sir, before you |
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joined Oracle, you worked at Morgan Stanley; correct?
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A. That's correct. |
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Q. What was your position there? |
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A. I was an analyst. |
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Q. And were you ~ did you have any designation |
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beyond that? Were you a senior analyst, executive
~ |
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A. Managing director.
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Q. And what does managing director mean? What were
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your duties and responsibilities as such? |
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A. Well, I was responsible for research coverage of
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the enterprise software industry and also for training
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some junior analysts and various other management
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committees. |
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Q. Did you have an equity position with Morgan |
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Stanley?
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A. Yes. |
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Q. Were you a partner with Morgan Stanley? |
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A. Well, it was a public company so you don't use
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the term "partner" any longer. I guess the term really
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didn't apply.
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Phillips 06-03-04 5
00141
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Q. But what was the nature of your equity position
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at Morgan Stanley while you were there? |
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A. Just stock and options. |
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Q. All right, sir, how long were you a managing |
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director with Morgan Stanley, from when to when?
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A. I think from ~ became a managing director in |
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'95 I believe through 2003. |
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Q. All right, sir, was there an equity research |
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group at Morgan Stanley?
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A. Yes |
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Q. Were you a member of that group? |
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A. Yes. |
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Q. What was the ~ could you describe what the |
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equity research group consists of, consisted of while
you |
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were there? |
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A. Okay. The research group consisted of analysts,
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several hundred analysts around the world, following
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various industries and companies. |
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Q. Now, when you use the term "analysts" in the |
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context of what you did at Morgan Stanley, what does
that |
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involve? What type of activities were you involved
in? |
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A. Provided investment advice to institutional
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Phillips 06-03-04 6
00142
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investors was the primary job, and based on research on
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which companies were more attractive for investment.
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Q. So you would track companies, watch companies'
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performance, watch the companies ~ the markets those
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companies were performing in and give research advice
to |
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investors? |
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A. That's correct. |
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Q. Now, did that research advice include oral |
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advice as well as written advice?
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A. Yes. |
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Q. So you might have investors call you up and ask
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individualized questions about a company or a particular
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industry as well as you issuing periodically written
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advice about companies and markets; correct? |
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A. That's correct. |
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Q. Now, you have in front of you what's been marked
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as Exhibit 895 to your deposition. It's a multi-page
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document bearing identification numbers M.S. 00912
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through M.S. 00920, and I'll ask you if this is one
of |
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. the written pieces of information that was prepared
at |
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Morgan Stanley and issued to investors? |
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A. This was prepared at Morgan Stanley and issued
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Phillips 06-03-04 7
00143
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to investors.
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Q. Now, this particular one was issued under your
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name; correct? |
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A. That's correct, as the supervisory analyst, yes.
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Q. And Evan Bloomberg, who is also listed here |
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under you, was who? |
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A. He was a research associate and in many of the
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routine reports like this one, which was just writing
up |
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a quarter, the research associates would write those as
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part of the training. |
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You said that you were the supervising analyst; |
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correct? |
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A. Yes. |
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Q. So Mr. Bloomberg would have been acting under |
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your direction and control with relation to the work
he |
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did on Exhibit 895? |
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A. Yes, I would have been responsible for reviewing
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anything that went out. |
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Q. And was it ~ does Morgan Stanley have any |
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internalized or did when you were there, any internalized
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Phillips 06-03-04 8
00144
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rules regarding being as accurate as possible when they
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issue advice, either oral or written, to investors?
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A. Yes. |
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Q. What did those rules consist of? |
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A. Should be accurate as much as possible and to |
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the best of your knowledge, and should have done research
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to have a view. |
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Q. As a supervising analyst, did you follow those
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guidelines while you were with Morgan Stanley?
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A. Yes. |
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Q. Now, did Morgan Stanley also have any, to your
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knowledge, responsibilities regarding, you know, the
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accuracy of the information it issued to investors
such |
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as exhibit 895 to any governmental agencies? For |
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example, did the SEC have any rules you had to follow
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regarding analysts advice? |
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A. Well, yes. You'd have to ~ this came later. I
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don't know if these rules were in place for this |
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report ~ but certify that to the best of your knowledge,
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you know, the information was accurate. But it's
the |
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future ~ and a lot of the things that are in these
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reports are talking about future developments or opinions
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Phillips 06-03-04 9
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and all you can do is reflect your opinion at that point
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in time. |
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Q. Based on the research that you did as accurately
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as you can do it? |
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A. Based partially on that, but a lot of its based
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also on experience and extrapolation from that research
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and analysis. |
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Q. Now, the reports such as Exhibit 895, to your |
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deposition, those would be issued to investors; correct?
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A. Well, this -- make sure this is what I think it
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is. |
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This particular report was issued to investors |
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but because it's an earnings report after the earnings
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are already out and everyone's already seen the |
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information, very few people actually read these reports.
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Q. How do you know who read it and who didn't? Is
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there some way that they sent it back to you and
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confirmed whether they read the report or not? |
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A. Because normally I've already talked to the |
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investors. They don't need to read it and they've
heard |
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the same conference call I heard and so they get tons
of |
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these from every research house, the same quarter, not
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Phillips 06-03-04 10
00146
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much differentiation, reporting what happened, so there's
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no need to read them. |
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And I started in the business on the other side |
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of the fence in the buy side so I know that because
I was |
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basically a client. |
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Q. Let me ask you this, how many investors would a
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report such as Exhibit 895 have been sent to? |
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A. I don't have the exact number, but thousands ~
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but electronically anyway.
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Q. All right, sir, would they also have been sent
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it in hard copies as well as electronic to some |
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customers? |
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A. I stopped sending them out in hard copy because
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it's a waste of money, they weren't getting read and
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nobody noticed. |
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Q. You still sent them to your investors by
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electronic version? |
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A. They were available electronically and you |
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could - some investors subscribed to them and had
all |
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reports automatically sent to them, other ones it
was on |
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a demand basis. They would come get the reports if
they |
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needed to see it.
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Phillips 06-03-04 11
00148
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Q. In issuing reports such as, and including
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Exhibit 895, to the best of your ability, you followed
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the guidelines of Morgan Stanley in determining that
the |
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information that you were sending to investors was
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accurate as possible? |
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A. Well, most of the interaction with the investors
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wasn't by means of reports and so what they paid for
was |
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not just a report, but access to the analysts and
to have |
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discussions with them and the verbal advice was more
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important than the written. |
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MR. ROSCH: The question is did you try to be |
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accurate in this report. |
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A. Oh, yes. |
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MR. SCOTT: Q. From your perspective, whether |
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you were giving the investors advice in written form,
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such as Exhibit 895, or in oral form, you tried to
be as |
Phillips 06-03-04 12
00149
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accurate and thorough as possible?
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A. Yes. |
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MR. TOBEY: May I just for the say for the |
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record. You've been referring to Exhibit 15. Are
there |
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two exhibits? |
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MR. SCOTT: I'm sorry. We've got it wrong. I'm |
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doing the one with the sticker that I had here. The
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question's I have here, we can either do one of two
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things. I can go through all of them again or we can
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just have her reflect in the record that I'm talking
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about Exhibit 895. |
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MR. ROSCH: As far as I'm concerned, it can |
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reflect Exhibit 895. The record should simply also
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reflect that 15, which is also on the document means
that |
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it was also an exhibit in his CID deposition. |
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MR. SCOTT: I have no problem reflecting that. |
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So go back and we'll just fix the questions and answers
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so we're talking about Exhibit 895. |
Phillips 06-03-04 13
00155
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Q. Are you an economist?
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A. No, I'm not. |
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Q. Have you ever purported in any of the reports of
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that kind, that is to say, referring to Exhibit 895,
have |
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you ever purported to give investors an economic
analysis |
8
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of any market? |
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A. I've never purported to be an economist or |
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present this information as a formal economic analysis,
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especially since it's a quarterly report and that's
not |
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the place any one would do economic analysis for any
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broad market. It's just a quarterly write-up. |
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Q. What did you mean then when you said ~ when you
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used the word oligopoly in that sentence? |
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A. I used it as a colloquial term, the term |
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oligopoly, and to describe the leading companies with
the |
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most recognized brand names and who were public. |
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So I was speaking to people who only cared about |
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public companies and at the time I only cared about
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Phillips 06-03-04 14
00156
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public companies, as well, since it's an investment
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document. And it's more of a marketing term used to
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describe the leading brand names in that particular
area. |
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Q. Have you ever attempted to define a market in |
5
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the sense that that term, the term "market" is used
by |
6
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economists? |
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A. No, I haven't attempted to do that. |
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MR. ROSCH: Q. Have you ever tried to determine |
10
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whether any firm or group of firms collectively had
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market power, as that term is used by economists?
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A. No, I've never tried to do that. |
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MR. ROSCH: Q. Have you ever tried to analyze |
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the barriers to entry into a market in the sense that
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entry barriers are defined by economists? |
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A. No, I've never tried to do that.
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MR. ROSCH: Q. Do you even know how economists |
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define entry barriers? |
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A. No, I don't. |
Phillips 06-03-04 15
00157
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Q. Do you know how economists define market power?
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A. No, I don't. I understand the concept but I |
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don't know how they define it. |
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Q. Just a couple, Mr. Phillips. |
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Now, in the document here it says, "Stepping |
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back a bit, the back office applications market for
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global companies is dominated by an oligopoly comprised
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of SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle. The market is down
to |
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three viable suppliers who will help reautomate the
back |
13
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office business processes for global enterprises for
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years to come. These are critical functions, and
while |
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most companies had begun implementing these products,
few |
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have completely rolled out a suite across all locations
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in countries on the latest version of technology."
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Do you see that language? |
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A. Yes. |
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Q. That was issued by Morgan Stanley under your |
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name; correct? |
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A. That's correct.
|
Phillips 06-03-04 11
00148
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Q. And under Morgan Stanley's practices, you
|
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believe that to have been true and accurate as possible
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when you issued it; correct? |
4
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A. I believed that it was accurate in the context
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of how we used those words in the investment community
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and how I was presenting it in the context of a short
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quarterly earnings report and not an economic analysis.
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Q. These reports such as Exhibit 895, you said were
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issued on a quarterly basis by Morgan Stanley when
you |
10
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were there?
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A. Yeah, quarterly reports obviously are issued |
12
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quarterly for earnings reports which is a separate
|
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category of reports. The ones I described are not
widely |
14
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read, mostly written by associates because of that,
and |
15
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are commoditized because they restate the quarter
that |
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just came out so it's the least important of the
reports |
17
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that were published. |
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Q. But even with these reports, though, you're now
|
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referring to them as being the least important, you
would |
20
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try to make them accurate under the guidelines of
Morgan |
21
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Stanley because you were providing them to investors
that |
22
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did business with Morgan Stanley? |
Phillips 06-03-04 17
00159
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A. Yes. Try to make all reports accurate, but the
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terms used in the investment community differ from
the |
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way those terms may be used in other circles. |
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