Corporate Half-Truths vol 7,381,442

Spin is such a wonderful thing...

Oracle Top Dogs Bullish On Apps, Database Battles

I call your attention to the following statement:

"The PeopleSoft integration is complete--the
development and sales organizations are
integrated and delivering upgrades to
PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers.
The retention rate is in the high
90th percentile," (Oracle Co-President
Safra) Catz said.

OK, now what "retention" is she talking about here? Customers? Employees? And what time frame is she using? Since the takeover was completed? Since the takeover attempt was announced? I'm not a journalist, but I would think that a real journalist would want to ask these questions about a statement like that (I know, they don't do that anymore, but that's a different subject entirely).

The reason I ask is that my empirical evidence suggests quite the contrary on the employee retention front...