Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle, delivers a keynote address during the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2019. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images Oracle founder Larry Ellison has entered into a trading plan that would allow him to sell up to 50 million of his shares in the software company, or $7.5 billion worth of stock at the current price. Ellison adopted the plan on June 22, and it's set to end on Oct. 24, according to a regulatory filing published Friday.
It's an unusual move for Ellison, who has held onto a substantial part of the company that he launched in 1977. He controls over 40% of Oracle, according to FactSet, and would still own 1.1 billion shares if he sells all of the stock in the plan. Since the start of this century, Ellison has never sold more than 25,000 Oracle shares at any given time, according to FactSet.
A spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Ellison, 82, has helped turn Oracle from a legacy software maker into a major player in artificial intelligence infrastructure. In its earnings report on Thursday, Oracle exceeded estimates, boosted by 121% year-over-year growth in cloud infrastructure revenue.
But getting there has required Oracle to take on mounds of debt, raising concerns among investors who have pushed the stock down roughly 20% this year. Ellison, the world's seventh-richest person, helped finance the 2025 merger of his son David Ellison's production company, Skydance, with Paramount. WATCH: Jefferies Brent Thill on Oracle: Institutional investors still worried about the balance sheet watch now
Source: CNBC
