Oracle: Billionaire Ellison halts plan to pocket 7.5 billion
The group’s chairman, who holds around 40 per cent of Oracle’s shares, has decided not to sell 50 million shares for the time being
Billionaire Larry Ellison has put the project on hold to cash in on nearly 7.5 billion dollars, whilst his subsidiary Oracle has increased the scale of its planned staff cuts, as it faces a liquidity crisis linked to the development of large-scale data centres for artificial intelligence projects.
The programme halted by Ellison
The company has announced a new share trading programme for Chairman Larry Ellison, who owns around 40 per cent of Oracle’s shares. The plan, adopted on 22 June, allows Ellison to sell 50 million shares by 24 October, as stated by the company in a filing with the regulatory authorities. The shares closed at $175.07 on 22 June – valuing the 50 million shares at $8.75 billion – and have since fallen by 16 per cent by Friday’s close. Following the publication of the documentation, the chairman made it clear that the plan had not been implemented and would not be implemented: “No Oracle shares have been sold under this plan,” the group explained, “and he has no further plans to sell his Oracle shares.”
Family commitments
Ellison was one of the main financiers behind his son David’s acquisition of Paramount Global last year and the $110 billion bid made by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance Corp. for Warner Bros. Discover Inc.
Oracle’s reorganisation
The cost of Oracle’s staff cuts, which the company refers to as the “2026 Restructuring Plan”, is now estimated at around $2.8 billion, consisting largely of severance pay for redundant staff, according to the document. Oracle has already set aside around $2.1 billion for costs related to the plan, and the $700 million increase reflects “further actions we expect to take”, the company said.
