Unlike Steve Jobs, who almost literally passed away engrossed by his lifetime legacy, his work, that "other" billionaire, Oracle's Larry Ellison, 70 years young, has decided to step aside and focus on the more enjoyable things in life, such as buying Hawaiian islands.
In his departure, he will be appointed to the title of Executive Chairman, and is replaced by Mark Hurd and Safra Catz as joint CEOs of the company.
Just out from the company:
The Oracle Board of Directors today announced that it has elected Larry Ellison to the position of Executive Chairman of Oracle's Board and appointed him the company's Chief Technology Officer. Jeff Henley, who has served as Oracle's Chairman for the last 10 years, was appointed Oracle's Vice Chairman of the Board.
The Oracle Board also promoted both Safra Catz and Mark Hurd to the position of CEO, Oracle Corporation. All manufacturing, finance, and legal functions will continue to report to Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. All sales, service and vertical industry global business units will continue to report to Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd. All software and hardware engineering functions will continue to report to Oracle Chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison.
"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," said Larry Ellison. "All the other reporting relationships will remain unchanged. The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future. Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."
"Larry has made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy," said the Oracle Board's Presiding Director, Dr. Michael Boskin. "Safra and Mark are exceptional executives who have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to lead, manage and grow the company. The Directors are thrilled that the best senior executive team in the industry will continue to move the company forward into a bright future."
But don't cry for Larry: since he owns about 25% of the company, now that Oracle just announced another $13 billion buyback authorization, Larry will get just over $3 billion of that in the coming several quarters.
