Larry Allison oracle. Larry Ellison's Success Story

Larry Ellison is an American entrepreneur, talented developer software, co-founder of Oracle, the world's largest software company after Microsoft. Sailing enthusiast. In 2014, he stepped down as CEO of Oracle, but remained chairman of the board of directors and director of technology development. Ranked 7th in 2017 the richest people world, according to Forbes magazine, owns a fortune of 52.2 billion dollars.

For reference:

• Full name: Lawrence Joseph Ellison
• Was born: in 1944 on August 17 in the Bronx (New York, USA)
• Education: University of Illinois, University of Chicago (both did not graduate)
• Start of business activity: 1977
• Type of activity at start: software company Software Development Laboratories (SDL)
• What is he doing now: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Technology Development at Oracle
• State:$52.5 billion in 2017 according to Forbes magazine

Larry Ellison is an American billionaire, founder of Oracle, the largest software company in the world after Microsoft. Business is not his only passion.

The billionaire does not hesitate to lead a "star" lifestyle: he collects luxury real estate, yachts, airplanes, sports cars, dresses in fashionable branded clothes, and is fond of Japanese culture.

How the son of an unmarried 19-year-old Jewish woman (an emigrant from Odessa), who could not even cure him of pneumonia and gave him up to her uncle and aunt, could reach such heights, we will tell in the article.

Childhood and youth of Larry Ellison

Rice. 1. Larry Ellison as a child

The mother of the future billionaire gave birth to him in New York, in the Bronx on August 17, 1944. When the boy was 9 months old, he fell ill with pneumonia. The young mother realized that she could not cope with the disease and the further maintenance and upbringing of her son. She gave him to be raised by her aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison, who lived in a poor area of ​​Chicago. They were Jewish by nationality, and they took the name Allison to hide their origin.

In the same area, Larry lived all his childhood with foster parents, went to school. In 1962 he entered the University of Illinois. However, he did not study there for two full years. His adoptive mother died, and Larry fell into depression and dropped out of school. The next step was to study at the University of Chicago, where he met computer technology but only studied for a few months.

Fig.2. Young Larry Ellison, Ampex period, 1970.
Source: successstory.com

At 22, Ellison moved to live in northern California, worked as a programmer in various companies. This did not bring him much income, but it allowed him to do what he loved and gain experience in programming. In 1970, he was lucky enough to get a job at Ampex Corporation, where he took part in the development of the first IBM-compatible server system.

Birth of the Oracle

In 1977, Larry founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with friends and colleagues Bob Miner and Ed Watts. The initial investment in the creation of a new company amounted to about 2 thousand US dollars. The press writes that the impetus for creating his company for Larry was an article he read by Edgar Codd, the creator of the relational data model. This article talked about the possibilities of creating such databases that can run on any computers running the SQL query language.

In those years, business needed information processing technology, which became more and more. Databases existed, but they were designed for each computer. That is, each database could work only on the computer for which it was created.

The success story of Oracle Corporation began with the fact that young entrepreneurs, led by Larry Ellison, sensitively grasped this market need, made a bet on database management systems (DBMS) and microcomputers. Ellison's distinctive strategy was the development of universal databases that can work on any computer with any array of information: be it banks, factories, public procurement, space research, or any other.

The young company received an order from the CIA to create one of these databases. Ellison called this development Oracle (Oracle). And in 1982, he renamed his company (at that time it was called Relational Software Inc.) and named it the same as the database being developed, but never developed, for the CIA. This is how the legendary Oracle Corporation was born.

Quote by Larry Ellison: "When people start telling you that you're crazy, you can be in the most important innovation of your life."

Read the story of another innovative entrepreneur: Elon Musk is an inventor, businessman and life-changing man.

Oracle Corporation Business Milestones

The first version of the DBMS was called Oracle v2. It was a well thought out marketing ploy. It was aimed at creating a feeling among potential customers that the company is not releasing the first product and is not a newcomer to the market. Although in reality it was so. However, this move was successful. The first customer was the American Wright-Paterson Air Force Base.

In 1983-1985, the third, fourth and fifth improved versions were released.

In 1986, Oracle publicly placed shares (conducted an IPO) on the NASDAQ exchange, and the name of its founder first appeared in Forbes magazine. Ellison's fortune was then estimated at $185 million. In the same year, the name of another, at that time millionaire, appeared on the list - Bill Gates, however, with a more impressive amount - 315 million dollars. From that moment began their rivalry.

Larry has always strived and strives to overtake a competitor, and he succeeded: in 2000, he was able to increase his fortune by $ 3.9 billion, it amounted to 48 billion, while Bill Geist lost $ 10 billion due to a lawsuit. antitrust proceedings.

Ellison and Gates are called complete antipodes, despite their similar business: Gates is an exemplary family man and ascetic, Ellison changes wives, does not hesitate to use all the attributes of life available to billionaires. Once he even flew his fighter jet over the Bill Gates mansion.

On the verge of falling

1990 became a crisis year for the company. It has lost almost 80% of its value. Ellison had to take extreme measures: he laid off more than 400 employees, including top managers and those who had worked for the company for more than 10 years.

He explained such harsh measures by the fact that Oracle was the fastest growing company in the software industry, it reached a billion in revenue, but faced management problems that led it to the brink of ruin. Ellison believed that the company had outgrown the people who run it, they remained at the level when Oracle was worth $15 million. They were unable to manage a billion-dollar giant.

The company managed to return to a growing track. And since then, the principle of Larry Ellison in business has become the postulate: “The business more important than people».

From 1999 to 2009, Larry Ellison received the status of the highest paid top manager of the decade in the United States according to the daily American business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

Almost every year until 2010, Oracle released new versions of software and expanded its range of influence in the computer industry market.

In 2010, a merger with Sun Microsystems, a major software manufacturer, took place through an acquisition. In total, from 2005 to 2016, Oracle spent more than $60 billion on acquisitions of other companies.

In 2014, Larry Ellison left the post of CEO of Oracle, but remained chairman of the board of directors and executive director of technology development.

Interesting fact: one of Larry Ellison's biographies is published under the title What's the Difference Between God and Larry Ellison. The answer to this question is simple: "God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison."

Hobbies and personal life

He is passionately in love with sailing, participates in risky competitions - sailing regattas. Loves speed and seeks thrills. He turns his performances and presentations into real acting shows, has powerful charisma.

He is involved in charity work and sponsors sailing competitions in the United States. They call him a rock star Silicon Valley. In 2012, allegedly for 300 million dollars (some sources indicate the amount of 600 million dollars), he acquired the Hawaiian island of Lanai. He also owns more than 20 luxury mansions and villas in Malibu. His yacht Rising Sun costs 200 million dollars, has a length of 138 meters and is one of the ten most expensive yachts in the world.

Larry Ellison, like many other famous billionaires, is not indifferent to projects aimed at extending life, exploring the aging process. In some of his interviews, Allison says that he would like to live forever. Since 1997, he has donated more than $430 million to aging research companies.

However, after Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched a new biotech company Calico (California Life Company) in 2013 to research molecular mechanisms aging, Larry Ellison curtailed his investment activities in this direction.

Ellison has been married four times and has two children. Currently (August 2017) divorced.

Interesting fact: Larry Ellison's fourth wife, Melanie Kraft, published a book after the wedding - a love story about how to marry a billionaire playboy who is divorced three times.

Larry Ellison Books: How God Is Different From Larry Ellison by Mike Wilson; Everyone Must Go Broke: The Unlacquered Truth About Oracle Corporation and Its Chieftain Larry Ellison by Karen Southwick.

Watch the video: The island of billionaire Larry Ellison, where Lost was filmed.

11:06 18.03.2013

One of the richest people in the world, founder and head of the Oracle corporation, founder of the second largest computer company in the world, ranked 5th in the Forbes rating in 2012. Larry Ellison belongs to the type of people who are more afraid than idolized, but this does not prevent him from being the head of a large corporation, increasing his fortune by several billion dollars every year, changing women and enjoying life. The one he dreamed about since childhood, and which became possible only thanks to his own efforts.

Biography of Larry Ellison
Lawrence (Larry) Ellison was born in 1944 in the USA. His mother at that time was only 19, and his father did not even know about his existence. When Larry was 9 months old, his mother gave him up to his uncle and aunt, who adopted him. Only at the age of 12 did the boy learn real story of its origin. I must say that Larry did not see his biological mother for 48 years, until he hired a private detective to find out more about his small segment of life in that family.

Since childhood, the boy had a rather tough temper, grew up independent and did not succumb to influence, which led to frequent conflicts with his adoptive father. It should be noted that the uncle who replaced Larry's father was a native of the Crimea and changed his surname Goldman to hide his Jewish origin. This helped him in America to make a fortune doing real estate. However, all was lost during the Great Depression. These youth Lawrence Ellison recalls with dislike. Constant nagging from his adoptive father, bad grades in school, remarks from teachers that he was good for nothing, mistakes in sports and the full realization that he would never become a millionaire. Surprisingly, it was these unpleasant moments that became the starting point from complete zero to the first million dollars.

Larry did not like to study, but he was very fond of reading books and was interested in issues that were not at all related to the school curriculum. Few people were interested in black holes, human genes, computer internals, if with the development of the basic school curriculum he didn't make it. In addition, Larry had an amazing gift for writing various stories, however, the main character in them was always himself. The future billionaire believed that the main thing in the world is not love at all, but respect for other people. It was respect that became the main direction in communication, which is also proved by the fact that Larry has been married four times today!

Thanks to his mind and tenacious grip, he began to receive the first programming orders at school and received more than any university teacher. From computers, programs, databases and programming Lawrence Ellison received real pleasure. He argued that the computer industry is much more dependent on fashion than any women's fashion. So, it requires increased attention and creativity. However, the adoptive parents insisted that it was very important to get a higher education.

After graduating from high school, he managed to enter the University of Illinois. However, after the death of his adoptive mother, Larry leaves the university and looks for ways to earn money. He changed many jobs, but all of them were inevitably connected with the computer. The second attempt to conquer the university was successful a year later. He entered the University of Chicago. Despite the fact that he was one of the most talented students, he was expelled after the first semester for absenteeism and poor progress. Larry Ellison understood all the imperfection of education and the complete discrepancy between theory and practice. "A good education is an advantage in business, but not a guarantee of success," said the future founder of Oracle.

First steps in business
In 1964, at the age of 20, he moved to California with a wealth of knowledge about computers and the ability to create the simplest programs. Here he began to carry out serious orders and earn very good money. True, Larry did not know how to save and save at all: he skipped all his earnings at once. But he understood one thing for sure: whoever learns to manage information faster than anyone else will be the winner. At that moment, he told himself and those around him that he would become a millionaire. “I will do everything,” he said. True, no one could assume that an ordinary guy who rides a bicycle, wears the same clothes, eats in a cheap pizzeria, will succeed. And he only constantly came up with drawings and diagrams that would make him one of the richest people in the whole world.
And finally, I came up with! In the early 70s, Larry Ellison worked for an unremarkable company - Amtex. Together with Robert Miner, they create a completely new concept for software development. These new developments were so good that they were introduced into the work of the CIA and the US Air Force almost immediately. From this small laboratory for the creation of a universal, multifunctional and perfect database, the story of his phenomenal success and the success of the huge corporation "Oracle" begins.

In one of his speeches, Ellison said: "When I founded Oracle, I just wanted to create an environment in which I would enjoy working." In 1977, SDL was founded, which was later renamed Oracle. The name speaks for itself: the database created by Larry was supposed to store a wide variety of information, from a list of employees to legal documents. At that time it was a real breakthrough in the computer industry!

In addition, clients demanded training and consulting from their company. This is how IT consulting was born. However, the development of the company did not stop there. After reading one of Edgar Codd's articles, the future billionaire began to dream of creating an operating system that would be compatible with IBM. And they succeeded! Income has increased exponentially. Shares of Oracle went public and the company multiplied its sales tenfold. As evidenced by the fact that the name Larry Ellison first appeared in Forbes list in 1986, when his fortune was estimated at $185 million.

In the 1990s, the company experienced a crisis, due to which the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Customers are increasingly leaving for competitors. Bill Gates has become the main contender for the palm. After Ellison confirmed that the company had failed, profits fell by more than five times, and his income for the year was reduced by more than 800 million. In addition, the company was accused of concealing income, fraud and incorrect accounting. The situation was complicated by the fact that all of his newfangled and expensive acquisitions in the form of cars, yachts, fitness centers and houses, Lawrence carried out thanks to huge loans that needed to be returned.

And at this point, Allison was not going to give up. It radically changes the composition of workers and recruits only experienced and professional managers, and he devotes himself entirely to improving his software product. And again - to the point! In 1991, the oracle company receives its first billion, only increasing its turnover every year.

In 2004, he bought out People Soft, in 2006 - BEA. Ellison calls the conquest of the market a war and leads the most brutal fight for the right to be called the best. His attitude in life: “I'm addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win."

To date, his fortune is estimated at 43 billion dollars. This is 7 billion more than last year. Larry owes this growth to the purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2009. And he's not going to stop. “It’s not enough for me to win. Everyone around should go bankrupt, ”said the billionaire.

Larry Ellison's Business Rules
The world's fastest growing billionaire claims that if you can't be "number one" in business, then you have nothing to do in it. He directed all his strength, mind and energy to the creation profitable corporation which must be successful and competitive. He hires only the best, most ambitious and hardworking workers. At interviews at the Oracle, everyone had to answer the question: “were you the smartest in the course?”. If the answer was yes, then he was hired, if negative, then they asked who was the smartest and called him. Lawrence himself says that he does not hire a person with whom he could not have lunch three times a week. He is not interested in the past place of work, the main thing is perseverance and the desire to win!

There are legends about his despotic and authoritarian character, as well as about his personal life and hobbies. 4 scandalous marriages, his own yachts, the purchase of a personal Macketty fighter and an island in Hawaii and hobbies for extreme sports - this is not the whole list of his quirks. But most of all he loves money. “... When you earn as much as I earned, you don’t know what to do with them. You can only spend a few hundred million, if you don’t try hard enough. Even after ten million financial difficulties fall away. If a person has ten million, he is able to provide for his family and children. And I need a billion to maintain my standard of living. That's how it is! I need a billion. I started from scratch, my parents didn't have a cent. That's why I still remember that 10 million is a lot of money. I was poor, I became rich, and, to be honest, being rich is much better. Some say wealth did not make them happy. If so, give your bucks to me, I know what to do with them ... "

Among his entourage there are more opponents than supporters. But no matter how brutal his methods of doing business and fighting with competitors, one thing is for sure: it produces excellent results. Larry Ellison has already written himself into the history of software development.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison(Lawrence Joseph Ellison) is the founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation. Also known as Larry Ellison.

Biography

1944: Mother's son from Odessa

Lawrence Ellison did not have the happiest childhood. Larry Ellison doesn't know his father's name. It is only known for certain that Larry's mother was an unmarried immigrant from Odessa. Shortly after arriving in America, she left him in the care of her uncle and aunt living in New York and disappeared without a trace.

The name of Larry Ellison comes from the name of Ellis Island - a filtration point for emigrants from Europe.

He was brought up at foster parents, but his mother died when he was not yet 18, and his father was sent to prison. Lawrence had to take care of himself, and after saving up some money, he moved from the Bronx to the more promising Berkeley. Over the next eight years, Ellison worked part-time, until he got a job at Ampex as a programmer. There he developed his first serious program, a large database called Oracle.

1977: Founding of Oracle

In 1977, along with Ampex employee Robert Miner, Lawrence founded Software Development Labs, a company focused primarily on consulting corporate clients.

One day Lawrence came across a document written by an IBM employee describing the concept of the Structured Query Language (SQL). IBM did not see the commercial potential of this technology, but Ellison immediately realized how promising the idea was. Together with Miner, they wrote a database program compatible with mainframes and personal computers. Buyers were found quickly and in honor of the same Lawrence database, they decided to rename the company to Oracle. In 1980, only 7 people worked with Lawrence, and the annual income did not exceed a million dollars. After IBM adapted SQL to its computers, Oracle's revenue doubled every year.

1980s: Ellison set the food trend in Silicon Valley

From an interview given by the head of the restaurant company Bon Appetit Management Company Fedele Baucho (Fedele Bauccio) to Business Insider in early November 2014, it became known how Larry Ellison influenced the food system in Silicon Valley.

Founded in 1987, Bon Appetit is engaged in the construction and maintenance of cafes, restaurants and canteens for corporations and educational institutions. The company is based in Palo Alto near the headquarters of major technology companies such as Google and .

“My office was right next to where the VCs started building their companies,” Baucho recalls.

He met Larry Ellison in the late 80s. He asked the head of Bon Appetit to open an Italian coffee shop Paninoteca with cold and hot sandwiches and sandwiches at the headquarters of Oracle in Redwood Shores.

“Being Italian, I said I could do it. However, we were sure that this diner would not last long,” said Fedele Baucho.

Paninoteca was opened, and then as Oracle began to expand, several other concept coffee shops appeared on campus. Now there is a Japanese noodle restaurant, an Indian cafe and even a small market with Mediterranean food.

Larry Ellison in his youth

Similar ideas were adopted by other companies, which at first used huge canteens, but after the initiative of the head of Oracle, they abandoned them. It became obvious that small specialized cafes are much more preferable, since there you can order food to your taste and sit as you like, Bon Appetit CEO emphasized.

Food outlets deployed by Silicon Valley companies have been described by Fedele Baucho as "a place for chance meetings of ideas," where people connect closely with each other, and innovative thoughts are born during conversations. At the same time, employees do not have to leave their companies in order to eat deliciously.

1991: Oracle on the brink of bankruptcy

In 1990, when the company received the status of a leading software manufacturer, the first failures appeared. Accustomed to steady growth, managers failed to anticipate the consequences of new players entering the market, and for the first time in Oracle's history, its costs exceeded revenues. Things only got worse in 1991. Sales of Oracle fell by 80% and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Lawrence replaced most of the leaders and managers with the best in the business, and it worked. Thanks to a competent marketing policy and the release of new powerful databases, Oracle managed to return to its previous level. Its products were used by banks, airlines, car companies and supermarkets. And with the spread of e-commerce, Oracle's revenues have increased exponentially.

2009: On the 4th place in the list of the richest people of the world from $22 billion

According to Forbes magazine on March 11, 2009, Ellison is in the top three richest people and in fourth place in the global ranking of the rich. His fortune is estimated at $ 22 billion. At this time, he owns a 22.59% stake in Oracle Corporation.

2012

Plans to buy a sports empire

In October, 2012 it became known that the head of Oracle Larry Ellison intends to acquire Anschutz Entertainment Group, owned by billionaire Phil Anschutz. This was reported by Reuters, citing two sources close to the situation. At the same time, Ellison's interest in buying the media group, whose starting price is $10 billion, is "tentative."

Ellison, the third richest person in , recently made an eccentric purchase by acquiring an island in Hawaii. Buying AEG will allow him to take control of, for example, a National Football League team and move it to Los Angeles.

Auction events for the sale of AEG are just beginning, this week bankers from Blackstone Advisory Partners only sent out the necessary information to potentially interested buyers. An information memorandum containing no financial data was sent to dozens of addresses.

AEG's assets include a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers NBA, the LA Kings hockey team, over 100 entertainment and sports centers around the world, and the AEG Live concert promotion business. Interested parties will be able to submit bids for the AEG auction at the end of October 2012.

Accusations of fraud with the purchase of a subsidiary

From documents provided by Oracle to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the end of September 2017, it follows that in the next five years, Ellison is entitled to a share option in the amount of $103.7 million, or $20.7 million per year. This is 47% less than the previous share awards and corresponds to a 50% reduction in total payments to the former CEO.

The compensation package of Larry Ellison who by October, 2017 holds a post of the technical director of Oracle, includes $17.5 million of options, however Oracle did not explain how this amount is generated. The FT notes that the final share payout could be substantially increased if the company meets the targets set out in the compensation plan.

Oracle halves payments to Larry Ellison under pressure from shareholders

Oracle has not guaranteed that Ellison and other high-ranking employees will not receive more securities payments within five years, although the company says it "does not expect" any additional grants.

According to the publication, there is a risk that within five years Allison will lose all remuneration, except for a symbolic salary of $ 1 per year, if the company does not meet the targets. financial indicators and quotation rates. The goals include increasing the share price to $80 (up 64% from the level of October 6, 2017) and increasing the revenue and profitability of the cloud business to certain levels. This extends not only to Ellison, but to all senior management.

Thus, this can be seen as a victory for the largest institutional investors, who for many years criticized the inflated directors' earnings.

U.S. public companies are required to submit their executive compensation policy to a mandatory shareholder vote and submit executive earnings reports (say-on-pay) for "recommendatory" approval, but there are no legal obligations to do so. For five years in a row, Oracle shareholders disapproved of executive compensation, but until 2017, the company only cut payouts slightly and added new tasks to the salary system.

According to Kirk Hanson, director of the Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, payouts for three top Oracle executives have been very high in recent years. While the say-on-pay vote has been effective in drawing attention to inflated salaries, it's too early to tell how Oracle's new financial arrangements will work in practice, he warns.

Oracle says in SEC filings that dissatisfaction with management compensation was a major topic in shareholder meetings with independent directors, but the issue has received "positive feedback" under the new agreements.

Shareholder dissatisfaction grew substantially after Oracle paid Larry Ellison about $94.6 million in 2012. Then Ellison took first place among the highest paid directors in American companies and earned by that time about $ 650 million in ten years.

The SEC ordered Tesla to invite two new independent directors after a scandal when founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted about Tesla's possible delisting and turning it into a private company. The Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed this claim and announced that Musk misled Tesla investors. As a result, Elon Musk was also forced to leave the post of head of the board of directors of Tesla, and this place was taken by Robin Denholm, formerly one of the directors of the board. At the same time, Musk remained the CEO of the company.

As of the end of 2018, Tesla's board of directors has 11 members, including 3 women. In the fall of 2018, California introduced a requirement for publicly traded companies to have women on boards of directors, becoming the first US state who took such a step.

Lanai are advertised as the most attractive among the Hawaiian Islands. It is known that there is not a single traffic light on the island, but the lack of transport infrastructure is considered to be its advantage. There are two hotels on the island Four Seasons and two golf courses, all of which will go to Allison after the deal.

Son David and daughter Megan

The son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has reached the pinnacle of his career in Hollywood. David Ellison works for Skydance Productions while own daughter Ellison, Megan Ellison is also in the film industry and works at Annapurna Pictures.

Over the past few years, David has become one of the most influential producers in Hollywood. Neither more nor less, he acted as the producer of the next film series "Star Trek: Retribution", the original title is " Star Trek into the darkness "(Eng. Star Trek Into Darkness). It is the twelfth feature-length science fiction film set in the world of Star Trek.

Larry Ellison's son David turns out to be a Hollywood producer

The film was officially announced by Paramount Pictures in 2010. In early 2010, Paramount Pictures stated that the film would be released on June 29, 2012. The premiere took place in Sydney on April 23, 2013, and the worldwide release began on May 9, 2013.

He has also financed two more blockbusters due out in the summer of 2013: the original titles "World War Z" (humanity vs. zombies) and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (action). Allison Jr. also promised to soon release Mission: Impossible 5 and Top Gun 2 on the screens.

Together with his own sister Megan, David is going to produce "Terminator - 5"

David's sister Megan has also been involved in the creation of several films, including "Zero Dark Thirty" and New film Spike Jonze "Her" is working with David on "True Grit," and together they're going to have a hand in the release of Terminator 5.

Daughter's property

In November 2013, it became known that Megan Ellison, film producer and daughter of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, quietly sold three villas in a prestigious area of ​​Los Angeles, blogger The Real Estalker reports.

Ellison, the 27-year-old heiress of millions, purchased these homes between 2008 and 2011 for total$ 33 million. The girl's net profit from the sale of real estate amounted to $ 14.5 million.

The prestigious area is called "The Birds" (literally - birds), since most of the streets here are corresponding names. It is a favorite haunt of many celebrities, including popular Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston and George Harrison.

Panoramic view from one of the villas

The most scandalous quotes

Larry Ellison - one of the most outrageous top managers in the IT industry, second only to Steve Jobs - during his tenure at the helm of Oracle Corporation (since 1977), he uttered many phrases that then went down in history. He especially did not spare his competitors, not bothering himself in choosing politically correct epithets. Below are Ellison's most scandalous and memorable quotes, which, however, he never refused.

• 2007, about Leo Apotheker: “Oracle filed a lawsuit against SAP in 2007, accusing it of illegally downloading Oracle software. The former head of SAP Leo Apotheker at that time was already at the helm of HP. We subpoenaed him in the SAP case, but the HP board of directors sent him to Bolivia to negotiate with customers. Then he was sent to negotiate in Mongolia, just out of the reach of the federal subpoena ... later the council realized that they should have left Leo in Mongolia at all.

• 2008, on cloud computing: “An interesting note about cloud computing is that we're reinventing cloud computing: we've done it all before… The computer industry is even more trend-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't understand what cloud computing is all about. What is this? This is complete nonsense. This is madness. When will this insanity stop?"

• 2008, about cloud computing: “We are preparing announcements of new cloud solutions, because, you know, if orange is the new pink, then we will be sewing orange blouses. I mean, I'm not going to fight it…"

• 2010, about Mark Heard: At the time of Mark Heard's difficulties as CEO of HP, which ended in his dismissal, Ellison was very supportive of his friend. He sent a letter to The New York Times regarding his dismissal with the following comments: “Are you going to change Mark Heard for Leo? This best idea since the Apple board of directors fired Steve Jobs. Just brilliant." Ellison then hired Heard as president of the corporation.

• 2011, about Steve Jobs (after his death): “Trying to become like Steve Jobs it's like saying, “I want to be like Picasso. What should I do? Maybe use more red?

• 2012, about cloud computing: “I was at the origin of NetSuite, NetSuite was my idea. I called Evan Goldberg and said, "We're going to deliver ERP over the web, software as a service." Six months later, Marc Benioff figured out what NetSuite was planning and copied it completely."

• 2012, on the purchase of Lanai: "It will be, if you like, a small laboratory of business sustainability on a small scale example."

• 2012, about SAP competitors: “When SAP, and especially Hasso Plattner, talk about how they are going to build an in-memory database and compete with Oracle, I say: “God, give me the contacts of their pharmacist, they must be under drugs."

• 2012, on investments: Allison is a big philanthropist, especially when it comes to investing in medical programs and anti-ageing research. He also took part in the creation of NetSuite and Salesforce.com years ago, but the latter has become a serious competitor to Oracle. Ellison said: "I will never again participate in any startups in my life." However, more recently, he invested in another startup for computerized drug detection.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison(English) Lawrence Joseph Ellison, Larry Ellison; genus. August 17, 1944, New York, USA) is an American entrepreneur, co-founder and head of Oracle Corporation, the largest shareholder of NetSuite Inc., an initial investor in Salesforce.com.

Childhood

Born in New York to Florence Spellman Florence Spellman), a 19-year-old unmarried Jewish woman. His father was a US Air Force pilot Italian descent. The father was transferred abroad to a new duty station even before Spellman realized that she was pregnant. When nine-month-old Larry fell ill with pneumonia, the mother realized that she could not properly care for her child. At the request of his mother, he was placed in the care of his mother's uncle and aunt in Chicago. Lilia Spelman Allison Lillian Spellman Ellison) and Lewis Ellison (ur. Louis Ellison) adopted Larry when he was 9 months old. Ellison did not know the name of his mother and did not meet her for 48 years.

Ellison grew up in Chicago, attended school there, and began studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign. Due to the death of his adoptive mother, he did not take exams after the second year of study. After spending a summer in northern California with friend Chuck Weiss, he returned to Chicago and spent a semester at the University of Chicago, where he was introduced to computer science for the first time. In 1964, at the age of 20, he moved to northern California.

Career

In the early 1970s, he worked for Amdahl and Ampex. One of his projects at Ampex was the development of a database for the CIA, which he called "Oracle".

Ellison was greatly influenced by Edgar Codd's article "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", which is considered the first work on the relational data model. He, along with two Ampex colleagues, founded the company in 1977 under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). In 1979, SDL was renamed Relational Software Inc., and a few years later - in 1982 - Oracle, after the name of the main product - Oracle Database. Knowing about the existence of the IBM System R DBMS, which was also based on Codd's ideas, Ellison tried to make the Oracle DBMS compatible with it. However, IBM refused to disclose the source code of the program and it was not possible to ensure the compatibility of the DBMS. The first version released was the Oracle v2 DBMS in 1979, for marketing reasons the first version number was not assigned.

In the 1980s, Oracle was busy releasing new versions of the DBMS. In 1986, Oracle's shares began to be listed on the stock exchange, in three years the company multiplied its sales, which reached $584 million. However, already in 1990, the company ran into difficulties, announcing losses, and was forced to lay off hundreds of its employees.

State

For the first time the name of Larry Ellison appeared in Forbes magazine in 1986, then his fortune was estimated at $185 million. At the peak of the value of technology companies before the collapse of dot-coms in 2000, his fortune was estimated at $48 billion. As of September 2012, his fortune is estimated at $44 billion - the third in the USA (after the fortunes of Gates and Buffett).

In 2014, Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison left his post to take over as chief technology officer at the company. The site reviewer studied the history of the largest software manufacturer - overcoming crises, aggressive takeovers and Ellison's debate with Bill Gates.

In the history of every major IT company, there is a person who instilled in his offspring an original culture, which in the future becomes the key to the success of the corporation. The founder of a business does not just give the market a new product - he creates a new style, allows users to feel their own views and dreams. That is why when such a person leaves his own company, many say that it will no longer be the same.

A year ago, Larry Ellison, CEO and co-founder of Oracle Corporation, left his post and took over as chief technology officer. Although he is still involved in many aspects of management, everyone understands that the company is waiting for change, after all Ellison led it for 40 years. During this time, Oracle managed to become one of the industry leaders in software production, becoming the most profitable company after Microsoft and the absolute leader in creating software for large organizations.

Ellison's role in this success can hardly be overestimated, because he is without a doubt one of the brightest personalities in Silicon Valley. The former CEO has been described as both a business rock star and a tough entrepreneur who goes head over heels to achieve his goals. Larry is known as a brilliant negotiator and an amazing image maker.

Allison knows how to live to the fullest, so she loves extreme sports, traveling, expensive houses and original cars. At one time, Larry was friends with many bright personalities who seriously influenced the development of the IT industry. Among them, for example, Steve Jobs, who simply adored the yacht of the creator of Oracle, and Elon Musk, who shares his love of extreme sports.

Before becoming himself, the current Larry, Allison went through long haul, promoting its most important creation - Oracle - from a small company to a huge corporation with a huge number of customers. On the way to becoming a business, he had to overcome both the obstacles typical of a young entrepreneur and his own personal problems.

Larry Ellison's childhood cannot be called happy. His mother was an emigrant from Odessa, who fled to the United States, where her closest relatives lived - her uncle and aunt. Lawrence "Larry" Ellison was born in 1944 in the Bronx. At 9 months old, he became seriously ill with pneumonia, and his mother, who could not provide him with treatment, abandoned the child in favor of his uncle and aunt. Larry did not know his mother's name until adolescence.

The childhood years of the future entrepreneur passed in a difficult atmosphere. His adoptive father was to blame for everything - a bilious pessimist, disillusioned with society, as Larry himself characterizes him. Most of the time, the man who was supposed to instill self-confidence in the boy bullied Ellison and mocked his failures.

Adding fuel to the fire was his stepfather's reaction to every bad grade he considered a failure. However, the success of the future entrepreneur, the foster father also did not like. The boy had a much better relationship with his adoptive mother, whom he still remembers with warmth years later.

In his studies, Larry was not perfect: he was easily given the exact sciences, but he did not show to the rest special interest. While still at school, he began to read a lot and compose various stories, which amazed his peers. The teachers agreed that the boy was talented enough, but unstable. In general, his academic performance fluctuated with focus.

This approach to learning did not prevent Ellison from entering the University of Illinois. The future entrepreneur was enthusiastically waiting for the start of a new life, but he only survived the first course, and there were two reasons for this. Firstly, studying at the university did not differ much from school, so Larry soon got tired of tedious lectures, although he successfully completed his first year of study. Secondly, after the first year, during the exams, the young man's adoptive mother died, and he plunged into a long depression, which affected his desire to study.

For some time, Larry was interrupted by part-time jobs, but later decided to return to the university. After the first semester, Allison was expelled again, for the same reasons: he again read books at lectures or simply skipped classes. Nevertheless, the period of study played an important role in the life of an entrepreneur: he discovered computers for himself, and new opportunities captured him so much that he seriously thought about creating his own software.

Freed from boring lectures, Ellison became more and more interested in programming and joined several computer clubs. Friends were amazed at how quickly he manages to perceive new information.

In the 1970s, Larry already had enough knowledge to work professionally in his chosen field. A young man who was well versed in database development was taken to Amtex. In this company, in 1977, Larry created one of his brilliant creations - an excellent multifunctional database designed for the CIA, which was encrypted under the name Oracle. Together with Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates worked on this project. Soon, all three programmers realized that the created product was too good for such a company as Amtex, and decided to organize their own company, at the same time getting a customer in the person of the state.

At the beginning of their own business, the guys, according to Ellison, had about $ 1,200, enthusiasm and talent. Their company was founded in 1979 and was named SDL (Software Development Laboratories). The founders set about creating a better version of their own software. The resulting Oracle v2 database was acquired by the US Air Force, the first of many customers: the company's product was extremely competitive due to its high speed and SQL support. It is worth noting that this was the first commercial database on the market, so offers soon poured in.

Then Larry managed to demonstrate his talent as a salesman. It was his idea to call the database Oracle v2, although the first version of the program was not on the market. All in order to give potential customers the impression that SDL is already an experienced company with a proven product. In fact, the founders still had a lot to learn about the business - though it's not like they were slow learners.

New milestone development of the company will be 1982. It was then that SDL, which consisted of eight people, changed its name to Oracle Corporation. At this time, the team was seriously working on the third version of the program, which was released in 1983. Its main advantage was that it was written using the C language.

In 1984, an already more or less well-known company received the first investment of several million dollars from Sequoia Capital, which significantly accelerated the growth of the corporation and contributed to the emergence of new versions of Oracle v4 and v5, aimed more at business use. So, the fourth version allowed to create high-quality reports based on the data entered in the database, and the fifth is known for the possibility of computing and connecting clients.

One of the most significant milestones in Oracle's history was 1986. The staff of the corporation amounted to 400 people. In addition, the company held an IPO, during which it raised $31 million with annual income of $55 million.

Even at the dawn of the founding of the company, Ellison became famous for his amazing energy. Larry plunged headlong into the work, demanding the same from others. People who knew him said that working with him was like having a power generator in your boss. The excessive impulsiveness of the entrepreneur is also spoken of by his ex-wives: from 1967 to 1986, he managed to marry three times. In most cases, they compared it with nuclear bomb and admitted that they could not withstand the frantic pace of life next to Allison.

A successful IPO and increased attention from major publications further strengthened Ellison's temperament. Larry felt like a real king and therefore fell into extremes: he began to require employees to release new products as soon as possible and devote less time to accountants, whom he had previously disrespected, and now he began to avoid altogether.

This soon led to sad consequences. With the product, thanks to the excellent specialists working in the corporation, everything was in order, but in 1990 the company suffered losses due to accounting errors and debts from customers who had previously been forgiven for late payments. During the year, the corporation lost $12.4 million, and the level of capitalization fell by 80%. With the onset of difficulties, even Larry lost his temper, disastrously speaking to the press, which led to a drop in the company's stock.

The entrepreneur began to look for those responsible for the fiasco. Everything pointed to dishonest employees. Ellison gave vent to his anger - and heads flew, both accountants and others objectionable. More than 400 people lost their jobs - despite the fact that the company at that time employed about 4 thousand.

In the end, the sales model in the corporation was changed. Delays in payments for the use of Oracle software were prohibited, and the possibility of prepayment appeared. The changes affected the cost of use, which was significantly reduced in order to retain customers. There have been changes in the management of the company. In the early 1990s, Larry says, he realized the importance of quality recruiting and told the recruiting department to focus on more careful selection of candidates.

All this made it possible to bring the management of the company to new level. Shock therapy had an effect, and in 1992 the corporation practically ceased to incur losses. This was largely helped by the release of Oracle Database 7, which was recognized as one of the best databases on the market.

Having dealt with the troubles, Ellison hastened to drag the company into the war against Microsoft. Larry was seriously angered that Bill Gates made good money on the problems of Oracle, so caustic interviews about the world's richest corporation soon began to appear in the press. In them, Ellison criticized their software, Gates' management style and his approach to doing business.

Things at Oracle were on the mend, and the company gradually began to regain lost ground. With the beginning of a new profitable period, Ellison himself became more active: difficulties allowed him to assess the prospects of his own company from a different perspective, and he became interested in a larger expansion.

This explains Oracle's aggressive takeover of a number of manufacturing companies that began in the 1990s and has continued to this day. various kinds software. When asked by a reporter on this topic, Larry, with his usual smirk, replied that it was time to expand, because he simply could not give so many businessmen to be torn apart by Gates.

It should be noted here that Ellison's interview is one of those things for which he is loved. CEO Oracle just loves to shock the public. For example, at the height of the 2008 crisis, he provided the media with full information about your salary and bonuses. While many companies struggled to stay afloat, Ellison's earnings of $84.6 million were reported in magazines and on television. Even more fun was the end of this story, when in 2010 Larry's registered income stopped at $ 1, to which he ironically noticed that he decided to follow the fashion and save a little.

Another prank in which the indefatigable Ellison was seen was a whole campaign to return Steve Jobs to the company he founded. It was in 1994, Apple shares fell in price, and Larry, without first informing Steve, launched a website where he collected donations for the further acquisition of the giant. In addition, the head of Oracle bought a stake in the corporation to make his position more significant.

This caused a media storm, but Jobs reacted with restraint, although Ellison's direct offer to buy Apple was refused. Subsequently, Steve used the website as one of the tools to pressure the board of directors of the company he founded, returning there as a consultant.

But back to the 1990s. At that time, Larry not only fought to increase the value of the company and bullied Gates, but also announced his vision for the development of the industry, which caused a wave of criticism in his address. In essence, Ellison proposed abandoning the personal computer paradigm, suggesting that more equipment for large corporations would soon be available. He also pointed to the extreme promise of information technology.

In 1994, the company released an improved version of Oracle Database 7.1, which also ran on the IBM PC, in which some bugs were fixed. A new version brought profit and strengthened the position of the corporation. At the same time, the struggle began between Oracle, Sybase and Informix for dominance in the software market. Ellison did not hesitate to put pressure on his opponents with the most different ways from the media to private detectives.

The first to drop out of the race was Sybase, which decided to develop in cooperation with Microsoft and eventually lost ground. Later, the company's leaders once again tried to achieve success on their own, but they failed. As a result, in 2010 the company was taken over by the German SAP AG.

Informix lasted much longer. The company had great software, but it was destroyed by management errors.

The fight was pretty tough. Companies have gone through litigation due to the theft of intellectual property and the transition of developers to Oracle.

In 1998, Ellison's company improved its position with the help of software. Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server appeared. In these programs, it was possible to carry out any EFR operations directly from the browser.

The latest move in the winning game against Informix was the indictment by the Supreme Court of the head of the company Phil White in the special exaggeration of the company's profits, which is a federal crime. As a result, the competitor ended up in jail, and the company was bought in parts. There is still a rumor on the net that Larry was behind it.

Since then, Oracle began to dominate the software market, destroying direct competitors and surpassing Microsoft. Ensuring leadership was reflected in the level of profits. In 1998, the company's revenue grew by 26% and reached $7.1 billion. further growth profits continued, reaching $10 billion by 2000.

In the early 2000s, during the dot-com crash, Oracle was one of the companies that actually suffered no losses. While everyone was trying to minimize losses, Ellison entertained himself by buying expensive cars and organizing his own sailing team.