Oracle is hosting a couple of conferences simultaneously this week in Washington, D.C., and the star attraction was supposed to be the company's flamboyant, billionaire cofounder and CTO, Larry Ellison.
Ellison was scheduled to talk mid-day at one event and in the evening at the other.
People assembled for the first speech and after a long delay, Ellison never showed.
He was there in D.C., but was struck with laryngitis, Oracle finally told the crowd.
The flummoxed organizers had no pinch hitter, so the crowded room was told to just go hang out with each other and "network."
Here's a picture of the crowd waiting to hear Ellison:
The reaction to all of this, naturally, hit Twitter, where attendees took it all in good-natured stride:
Here's a joke reference to Ellison's former love of hostile takeovers, notable Oracle's take-over of PeopleSoft, one of the most vicious corporate fights in software history.
Ellison was feeling ok last week. He was hanging out at the at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, seen with lots of famous people, even Bill Gates.
This was a far nicer crowd than the one Ellison ditched in 2013 when he skipped a keynote at his own customer conference to watch his team race in the America's Cup. Some attendees were really ticked off about that.
He had to cancel the other keynote speech, too, at HCM World, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
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