Larry Ellison, co-founder of the software giant Oracle Corporation, started the company in 1977. Under his leadership, Oracle evolved from a small firm with just three programmers into the world’s largest database software provider and the second-largest business application vendor.
Oracle’s rapid growth under Ellison’s leadership was driven by his keen ability to identify and dominate new markets. The company expanded not only organically but also through strategic acquisitions, including Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in 2010 and NetSuite for $9.3 billion in 2016. Although Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014, he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer at Oracle.
Early Life and Education of Larry Ellison
Born in New York City in 1944 to an unwed teenage mother, Ellison was adopted by his aunt and uncle. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, he dropped out of both the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago without completing a degree. He spent nearly a decade working as a programmer for clients like Ampex and Amdahl, where he worked on the first IBM-compatible mainframe computer.
The Idea Behind Oracle
The inspiration for Oracle came from Ellison’s reading of a research paper by IBM, which proposed a new method for organizing large amounts of data for easier access. IBM hadn’t yet developed this idea into a commercial product, but Ellison immediately recognized the enormous commercial potential of relational databases to transform business operations.
In 1977, Ellison and two former colleagues from Ampex, Bob Miner and Ed Oates, used $2,000 to start Software Development Laboratories, which later became Oracle.
Oracle’s Breakthroughs
In the next two years, Ellison’s team developed the first commercial Structured Query Language (SQL) to manage large relational databases. Oracle’s initial success came from securing a $50,000 contract with the CIA in 1978 to develop a relational database management system (RDBMS), code-named Oracle. The company released Oracle 2, the first commercial relational database, in 1979, and by 1983, the company adopted the Oracle name from its first major project with the CIA.
Going Public and Oracle 7
Oracle went public in 1986, and despite some significant challenges, including its first quarterly loss in 1990, the company rebounded with the release of Oracle 7 in 1992, a popular database software relied upon by banks, corporations, and governments. By 2000, Ellison had become the highest-paid CEO in the world.
Strategic Acquisitions
Oracle’s success was also fueled by a series of strategic acquisitions that allowed it to enter new markets. These included Sun Microsystems (IT), Hyperion Solutions (business intelligence), Retek (retail), Siebel Systems (customer relationship management), and PeopleSoft (human resources and financial management).
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
By 2020, Ellison positioned Oracle to handle the explosive growth of cloud-based enterprise technology during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Zoom Video Communications selected Oracle’s cloud infrastructure to meet its growing service demands.
Outpacing Competitors
In the 1980s, when IBM started developing SQL software to compete with Oracle, Ellison capitalized on the fact that IBM’s SQL only worked with its own servers. In contrast, Ellison targeted emerging markets with relational database systems that could run on any computer, capturing the attention of enterprise and government users.
The Rise of the Internet
Ellison was one of the first to foresee the transformative impact the internet would have on the business world. Starting in 1997, Oracle began focusing on essential software platforms for the Internet, a risky strategy that paid off as it allowed the company to benefit from the dot-com boom. By 2000, Oracle was one of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, and Ellison briefly surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person.
Larry Ellison’s Net Worth
As of April 30, 2023, Ellison ranked fourth on the list of the world’s richest people, with a net worth of $107 billion according to Forbes. Alongside owning over 40% of Oracle, Ellison also holds shares in Tesla Inc. (TSLA).
Known for his extravagant spending, Ellison owns 98% of Lanai Island in Hawaii, a $194 million yacht, and numerous luxury properties in Malibu, California. He even built an estate in California modeled after 16th-century Japanese feudal architecture.
