Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has said that Apple will fail without its late CEO and founder Steve Jobs.

In an interview with US broadcaster CBS, Ellison described longtime friend Jobs as the company’s Edison and Picasso, and said that he believes Apple is doomed to repeat history – referring to the period when Jobs was forced out of the company following power struggles between Jobs and the board of directors in 1985.

Jobs left Apple shortly after the first iteration of the Macintosh computer, but the company saw massive losses until Jobs’ return to the fold in 1996.

“We already know,” Ellison said in the interview, when asked what would happen to Apple without Steve Jobs. “We conducted the experiment – it’s been done.”

“I’ll say it publicly – he’s irreplaceable. They will not be nearly so successful because he’s gone.”

Similar statements have been made since Jobs’ death in 2011 when Tim Cook took over as CEO, but questions over Apple’s future have quieted since then.

Apple’s stock price has seen massive fluctuations since last year as the company has had a gap in new product launches, but with the release of the new iPhone rumored to be just a month away and Apple’s rumoured low-cost iPhone line slated for this year, it is expected to gain back footing in the market.