1. Lawrence Joseph Ellison was born on August 17,1944 and is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation.
46 Facts About Larry Ellison
1. 2.
Larry Ellison was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is its chief technology officer and executive chairman.
3.
Larry Ellison was born on August 17,1944, in New York City to Florence Spellman, an unwed Jewish mother.
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Larry Ellison's biological father was an Italian-American United States Army Air Corps pilot.
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Larry Ellison did not meet his biological mother again until he was 48.
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Larry Ellison moved to Chicago's South Shore, then a primarily Jewish middle-class neighborhood.
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Larry Ellison remembers his adoptive mother, Lillian Spellman Ellison, as warm and loving, in contrast to his austere, unsupportive, and often distant adoptive father, who had chosen the name Ellison to honor his point of entry into the United States, Ellis Island.
8.
Louis Larry Ellison was a government employee who had made a small fortune in Chicago real estate, only to lose it during the Great Depression.
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At age 13, Larry Ellison refused to have a bar mitzvah celebration.
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Larry Ellison withdrew without taking final exams after his sophomore year because his adoptive mother had just died.
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Larry Ellison then moved to Berkeley, California, and began his career as a computer programmer for different companies.
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Larry Ellison had heard about the IBM System R database, based on Codd's theories, and wanted Oracle to achieve compatibility with it, but IBM made this impossible by refusing to share System R's error codes.
13.
The intense war between Informix CEO Phil White and Larry Ellison was front-page Silicon Valley news for three years.
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Also in 1997, Larry Ellison was made a director of Apple Computer after Steve Jobs returned to the company.
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In 2007, Larry Ellison earned a total compensation of $61,180,524, which included a base salary of $1,000,000, a cash bonus of $8,369,000, and options granted of $50,087,100.
16.
On September 18,2014, Larry Ellison appointed Mark Hurd to CEO of Oracle from his former position as president; Safra Catz was made CEO, moving from her former role as CFO.
17.
Larry Ellison assumed the positions of chief technology officer and executive chairman.
18.
In 2017, Forbes estimated that Larry Ellison was the 4th richest person in tech.
19.
In December 2018, Larry Ellison became a director on the board of Tesla, Inc.
20.
Larry Ellison aimed at transforming cancer care whose products were intended to quickly analyze data within electronic medical records systems.
21.
In 1992 Larry Ellison shattered his elbow in a high-speed bicycle crash.
22.
Larry Ellison's lawyer had argued that if Larry Ellison were to pay the fees, that could be construed as an admission of guilt.
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Larry Ellison's donation was intended to support the construction of well-being facilities on a new campus for co-ed conscripts.
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Larry Ellison is a licensed pilot who has owned several aircraft.
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Larry Ellison made a brief cameo appearance in the 2010 movie Iron Man 2.
26.
In July 2013, Larry Ellison opened a restaurant in Malibu named Nikita, which closed in December 2014.
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In 2017, Larry Ellison funded a farming company called Sensei Ag with a promise to use AI, robotics, and software to remake the way people around the world eat.
28.
In 2009, Larry Ellison purchased the Indian Wells Tennis Garden tennis facility in California's Coachella Valley and the Indian Wells Masters tournament for $100 million, and has subsequently invested another $100 million into the club.
29.
Larry Ellison downsized to Musashi, a 288-foot yacht built by Feadship.
30.
Larry Ellison served as a crew member in the second race.
31.
Previously, Larry Ellison had filed several legal challenges, through the Golden Gate Yacht Club, against the way that Ernesto Bertarelli proposed to organize the 33rd America's Cup following the 2007 victory of Bertarelli's team Alinghi.
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Larry Ellison committed to five years of funding to support the series until it could become self sustaining.
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Larry Ellison was critical of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, saying that "Snowden had yet to identify a single person who had been 'wrongly injured' by the NSA's data collection".
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Larry Ellison was one of the top donors to Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC supporting Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential bid.
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In 2020, Larry Ellison allowed president Donald Trump to have a fundraiser at his Rancho Mirage estate, but Larry Ellison was not present.
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In January 2022, Larry Ellison donated $15 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund super PAC associated with Sen.
37.
The Washington Post reported in May 2022 that Larry Ellison participated in a conference call days after the 2020 presidential election that focused on strategies for challenging the legitimacy of the vote.
38.
In January 2025, Larry Ellison joined Sam Altman of OpenAI and Masayoshi Son of Softbank at the White House to announce The Stargate Project.
39.
Larry Ellison reportedly lobbied Israeli mogul Arnon Milchan to drop his lawyer so that Netanyahu, implicated in one of his corruption cases, could hire him.
40.
In 1997, Larry Ellison received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
41.
In 2013, Larry Ellison was inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame.
42.
Larry Ellison was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2024.
43.
Larry Ellison owns many exotic cars, including an Audi R8 and a McLaren F1.
44.
Larry Ellison's favorite is the Acura NSX, which he gave as gifts each year during its production.
45.
In 2022, Larry Ellison bought a 22-acre property in Manalapan, Florida for $173 million.
46.
Larry Ellison purchased it from Jim Clark, who in turn had acquired it from the Ziff family.