I think if anything, the more profit-minded amongst them would simply be happy to cut loose a project that is probably not bringing in any direct revenues.

The argument for keeping it might be to develop it as "Project Stick It To Microsoft", and attempt to undercut the office revenues. Even that, though, doesn't really gain anything for Oracle in the short term.

My personal opinion is that eventually we'll see OO Calc getting the same integration with Oracle that Excel has with MSAS/SQL Server, and possibly OO Writer will form the core of a report writing engine.

"Paid cash for" is a sunk cost. They care about what it's going to do for them now and in the future. How much revenue did it bring in for Sun?

Maybe they can hack at it to make what you describe, but at that point do you think Oracle will care much about what it's called? I think it'd have a new name, myself. Oracle something, most likely.

I just don't see Oracle caring that much about it one way or the other. They wanted the server stuff, supposedly, and Java, most certainly. I can't see OO having figured much one way or the other, really.