Larry Ellison (Lawrence Ellison), who co-founded the enterprise software giant Oracle, and currently is a chief executive officer there, was born on August 17, 1944, in the Bronx, New York. After being adopted as an infant by Jewish parents, he spent his high school years in the Chicago area. Larry himself did not subscribe to any religion, avoiding a bar mitzvah when he turned 13. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a few years then attended the University of Chicago, where he grew interested in computer design, but soon dropped out. Then at age 20, he moved to Berkeley, California in 1964.
For his first eight years in Berkeley, Ellison worked for several different employers including Fireman’s Fund and Wells Fargo. He began doing computer programming work in the 1970s at Amdahl Corporation, where he helped build a mainframe system. He then moved on to Ampex Corporation before co-founding his own software company with two partners, Robert Miner and Ed Oates, called Software Development Lab in 1977. By this time CEO, Ellison had become interested in Structured Query Language after reading a paper by Edgar F. Codd called “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.” The company changed its name a few years later to Relational Software, Inc.
The software company’s first big client was the Central Intelligence Agency, which signed a two-year contract with Ellison’s team to build a relational database management system. This project, created in just one year, was called Oracle. In 1981 IBM contracted with Relational Software to use the Oracle database software for its mainframe systems, which put Ellison’s company on the path to robust, growing sales. In 1986 the company went public under the name Oracle Corporation, as $31.5 million was raised in the initial public offering.
Oracle’s success temporarily dried up in 1990 when it posted its first negative earnings report, which hammered the stock, pointing the company toward a possible bankruptcy. But Ellison radically reorganized the staff as he shifted his focus to product development and hired more seasoned managers. The changes paid off in 1992 when the company released Oracle 7, which made the company the leading developer of database management software, restoring Oracle’s stock price.
Despite the company’s rebound, Ellison faced several physical injuries throughout the decade involving his participation in outdoor sporting activities, such as yacht racing, body surfing, and mountain bike riding. He won a major Australian yacht race in 1998 from Sydney to Hobart, surviving a hurricane that killed six contestants. During this time Oracle’s profile rose as their software began attracting huge clients such as banks, automakers, airlines, and national retailers. By the end of the decade, Oracle had established itself as the premier online business applications provider.
The company had a banner year in 2000 as its net profits skyrocketed by 76 percent with the rising demand for e-commerce solutions. By this time Ellison’s fortune was approaching the world’s richest man, Bill Gates. Oracle stood out as a survivor of the early 2000s recession that wiped out many tech companies.
Starting in 2004 Oracle began buying a string of tech companies such as PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Sun Microsystems to expand market share. Other acquisitions included Agile, ATG, Endeca, Telephony@Work, Hyperion, and Primavera. The company umbrella blossomed to include industrial manufacturing, engineering, and construction, financial services, health services, servers, storage, networking, middle-ware, insurance, utilities, retail, applications, and more. By the end of the decade, Oracle provided software for the entire Fortune Global 100.
Throughout 2011 Oracle began acquiring cloud computing services, which was ironic since Ellison had made statements in the past to the effect he did not take cloud computing seriously. By 2012 the company had 120,000 employees and was one of the top software companies in the world with a market capitalization of over $150 billion, according to Yahoo! Finance.
In 2012 Larry Ellison ranked as the third richest person in America, according to Forbes, with a wealth of about $41 billion. He married four times between 1967 and 2010 and has two children. He was a close friend of the late Steve Jobs. Ellison is a collector of expensive cars and airplanes. In 2010 he achieved the goal of winning an American Cup yacht race. He once owned one of the world’s biggest yachts called The Rising Sun, which spans 454 feet, housing a movie theater, basketball court, and wine cellar. He sold the yacht to music industry billionaire David Geffen. One of Ellison’s most stunning personal achievements was he purchased the Hawaiian island Lanai in 2012 from Dole Foods billionaire David Murdock.
Some facts about Larry Ellison
1. Larry Ellison was born in New York City in 1944 but was raised in Chicago by his adoptive parents, Lillian Spellman and Louis Ellison.
2. After high school, Larry received a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1969.
3. Before starting Oracle, he worked as a programmer at Amdahl Corporation and later as a systems designer at Ampex Corporation.
4. Oracle was founded by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Edward Oates in 1977 under the name ‘Software Development Laboratories’, which was then changed to ‘Relational Software Inc’ and finally to Oracle Corporation in 1982.
5. He has led Oracle to become one of the world’s leading enterprise software companies with over 42 billion dollars in revenue a year and more than 143,000 employees worldwide (2022).
6. Not only did he become one of America’s wealthiest individuals through his success with Oracle, but he also ranks regularly on the AME Top 100 list of Billionaires since 2000, peaking at the third-richest individual alive in 2010 with a net worth of 102.9 billion dollars in 2022.
7. He currently serves as both chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle Corporation since its founding in 1977—this makes him one of the longest-serving CEOs on the planet (and also one of the most successful).
8. Through his Loihi Charitable Foundation, Larry Ellison has donated millions to educational institutions such as MIT, Harvard University, Stanford University, and USC medical schools—as well as multiple charitable organizations such as Feeding America, UNICEF, and PETA among many others.
9. Larry’s hobbies include deep sea fishing, collecting modern art (especially Magnum photographer Robert Mapplethorpe), and owning race horses – all elite pastimes due to his wealth!
Larry Ellison is one of the biggest American business magnates. He is widely recognized for his pioneering work in the software industry and for his philanthropic efforts. Here are some interesting facts about Larry Ellison that you may not know.
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