Oracle's Larry Ellison Steps Down as CEO

By Staff Reporter - 19 Sep '14 05:02AM

Larry Ellison, the chief executive officer of Oracle announced that he is stepping down from his post but will continue as chairman of the company's board.

The Oracle board has promoted two CEOs, Safra Catz, 52, and Mark Hurd, 57, with a division of work. All manufacturing, finance, and legal functions will be handled by CEO Safra Catz and all sales, service and vertical industry global business units will report to CEO Mark Hurd, according to a press release from the company.

Interestingly, Ellison has kept one more role for himself, that of chief technology officer, and all software and hardware engineering functions will be handled by him.

"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," said 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 in the company release. "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."

Ellison is 70 and says the recent moves are a part of his succession plans for the company. He founded the company in the 1970s and under his helm, Oracle Corporation rose to become one among the top five leading enterprise companies world over.

It has made him one of the richest people in the world with an estimated net worth of $50 billion. He is an avid sailor and has the best sailing teams in the world

In 2013, Oracle had revenues of $37 billion and profits of $11 billion, reports Vox.com . It grew from a database company to a software enterprise conglomerate with a slew of acquisitions which include PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and Sun Microsystems.