The interesting life of the Oracle boss, from dropping out of school twice to becoming a billionaire
- Tram Ho
According to Forbes, Larry Ellison now has a net worth of $ 68.4 billion, or the 7th richest person in the world.
He was born in the Bronx in August 1944, the son of a single mother, Florence Spellman.
When 9 months old, Larry pneumonia. His mother took him to Chicago to live with his uncles, Lillian and Louis Ellison, and he was adopted by them.
When his adoptive mother died, he was a sophomore and decided to drop out. He then attended the University of Chicago but dropped out after only one semester.
Finally, in 1966 when he was 22, Ellison moved to Berkeley, California – near Silicon Valley.
Ellison jumped from time to time, including part-time jobs at companies like Wells Fargo and server manufacturer Amdahl. In the process, he learned about computers and programming.
The turning point in Ellison's life came when he worked for the electronics company Ampex, which has a contract to build a database for the CIA called Oracle.
In 1977, Ellison and his partners Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded Software Development Laboratories. They started with $ 2,000 of capital, of which $ 1,200 was Ellison's own pocket.
Ellison was interested in the computer scientist's theory, Edgar F. Codd (working for IBM) on a relational database – a way for computer systems to store and access information. In the 1970s, this was a revolutionary idea.
The first version of the Oracle database was version 2 – and there was no version 1. In 1979, the company was renamed Relational Software Inc., and in 1982 officially became Oracle Systems Corp.
Becoming one of the main drivers of the computer technology industry, Oracle is developing very fast. In 1986, Oracle issued shares to the public and raised $ 55 million.
However, in 1990, they had to cut 10% of their labor (about 400) due to an "unimaginable mistake": Oracle allowed its sales staff to book future orders in the current quarter. , meaning all figures are skewed. That has caused a lot of lawsuits and problems with the authorities.
After that, they almost went bankrupt. At the same time, rivals such as Sybase have regained Oracle's market share.
It took several years until 1992 for Ellison and Oracle to go in the right direction with the famous Oracle7 database.
Oracle crushes all competitors and with Ellison as the major shareholder, money flows into his pocket. Ellison began to have expensive hobbies – including yacht racing.
He also sponsored the Oracle USA sailing team, helping the team win the 2010 US Cup.
In 1999, Ellison's heiress Marc Benioff left Oracle to start a business and founded Salesforce.com. Ellison quickly invested $ 2 million here to help his friend.
When Benioff learned that Ellison and Oracle were working with a direct Salesforce rival, he forced Ellison to leave Salesforce's management. Instead, Ellison forced Benioff to fire him – meaning Ellison kept his stake in Salesforce.
With the current value of Salesforce of $ 115 billion, Ellison also benefits even when his competitors should make it. That made his relationship with Benioff worse and worse.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he invited Ellison to join the board. Ellison agreed for a while but then withdrew because he could not arrange the time.
With a sizable budget in hand, Ellison had enough money to lead Oracle to acquire many companies after the dot-com bubble burst and the price of the companies dropped dramatically. In 2004, for example, Oracle acquired HR software vendor PeopleSoft for $ 10.3 billion.
In 2010, Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems. As a result, Oracle has many key technologies, including the famous MySQL database.
Since 2010, Ellison has begun to step backstage, ceding responsibility at Oracle to people he trusts are Mark Hurd and Safra Catz …
… But Ellison's spending habits did not slow down. In 2012, he bought 98% ownership of Lanai Island in Hawaii.
Ellison founded a company called Sensei to conduct hydroponics in Lanai in March 2016.
Ellison also bought Hawaiian low-cost carrier Island Air in 2014, before selling a stake two years later due to financial difficulties.
Ellison also invested in education platform company Leapfrog Enterprises.
In addition to Lanai island, Ellison also owns Astor Beechwood mansion in Newport, Rhode Island …
… and the house in Malibu, California …
… and in Woodside, California. He also has another home in Rancho Mirage, California.
Ellison also hosts the Indian Wells tennis tournament.
Ellison's spending habits were so horrible that his accountant Philip Simon had to ask him to "budget and plan" spending in 2002.
Ellison has been married and divorced 4 times. There are rumors that he is dating actor and model Nikita Kahn.
Ellison has 2 children. Megan's daughter is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who has worked on Zero Dark Thirty and American Hustle.
Ellison's son David also works in the film industry, producing films like 'The Terminator' and 'Mission: Impossible.'
In 2014, Ellison officially retired as CEO of Oracle, handing power over to Hurd and Katz. At that time, Ellison was the 5th richest person in the world.
Ellison also has many other activities outside of Oracle. He joined the board of Tesla on December 28, 2018, where he was a key investor.
Ellison is also a famous philanthropist. In May 2016, Ellison donated $ 200 million to a cancer treatment center at the University of Southern California.
In 2010, he signed the Giving Pledge pledge initiated by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, pledging to donate 95% of the property before his death.
Although he is no longer the CEO, he still has a strong attachment to Oracle. He currently holds the position of chairman and Technical Director here.
Source : CafeBiz