I may not always be the biggest fan of Oracle founder Larry Ellison when it comes to issues like executive pay. But I do appreciate his business savvy and ability to cut through the fog of marketing nonsense and get right to the heart of things. I thought about this when I read his remarks from his appearance at the Churchill Club with Ed Zander.
“Known for his strong ego and outspoken views, Ellison drew laughter when he ridiculed the industry trend known as “cloud computing,” saying as he has before that it’s nothing more than a faddish term for the established concept of computers linked by networks. “A cloud is water vapor,” he observed.
But what really struck me is that in his remarks this week, and other recent statements like the announcement of the configured Sun database product, that Ellison is actually going to do the unthinkable: He’s going to keep the hardware business.
“However, I do have a beef with Ellison’s compensation that should get a sympathetic ear from Oracle’s shareholders: Why is the company doling out more stock to a man who already owns 22.3 percen?”
It’s not like I expected Ellison or Oracle’ s board to listen to me. And guess what? They didn’t!
I came back from vacation today to find this nugget about Oracle’s board awarding Ellison another 7 million stock options for the fourth year in a row. The four-page report, called “Larry Ellison Rides Again,” comes from Graef Crystal, one of the most respected voices on executive compensation. In meticulous detail, Crystal breaks down the numbers, and in doing so, points out the absurdity of this latest award.
Perhaps there’s no more room for outrage when it comes to executive compensation, or Ellison continuing to rack up more options, but in any case, here are the highlights of Crystal’s analysis. Read the rest of this entry »
LeapFrog Enterprises, the maker of technology based educational toys, changed its bylaws at its annual shareholder meeting held June 4 to allow shareholders to fill vacancies that occur on the company’s board of directors.
During his keynote address to the audience at this year’s JavaOne conference last week, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy took time to introduce a special guest to the stage, saying “there’s kind of a big pink elephant, uh, in the room”, according to a transcript of that portion of the talk Sun filed with the SEC.
Oracle shareholders got a pleasant surprise this week when the Redwood City software giant said it would begin paying its first ever dividend. One shareholder in particular was no doubt especially pleased, though probably not surprised: Oracle founder and chief executive, Larry Ellison, who sits on the board and is also its largest stockholder.
When his company makes its first quarterly dividend payment of 5 cents per share on May 8, Ellison’s payment will amount to Read the rest of this entry »
Pillar Data Systems, the San Jose storage company backed by billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, said Wednesday it would layoff 150 employees, or about 30 percent of the company’s work force. The step was taken to help the company “weather the storm” of the current economy, company spokesman Chris Drago told Mercury News reporter Scott Duke Harris, who writes for Thursday’s paper about “triage efforts” to help companies survive the current downturn.
The pace of layoffs in Silicon Valley seems to be picking up, according to Janice Shriver from the state’s Employment Development Department. She says that efforts Read the rest of this entry »
We’ll see if this is a trend that continues, given the klieg lights aimed on executive compensation excesses at the moment, but not only are CEOs at large companies paid more because, well, they are managing large companies, but the rate at which their pay increases rises at a faster rate. That’s the conclusion drawn by The Corporate Library’s CEO pay survey, which examined compensation data in 3,242 U.S. and Canadian companies, making it “one of the most comprehensive CEO pay surveys on the market,” according to The Corporate Library’s press release announcing the availability of the survey results for 75 bucks at its Web site. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week, I wrote a column suggesting that Larry Ellison reach into his pocket and donate $600,000 to help the Portola Valley schools. After all, while he was well within his right to appeal the valuation on his mega-estate, his victory knocked $300,000 off the school’s annual budget. Certainly the highest paid CEO in the U.S. could help out for a couple of years, right?
There were several folks who commented online who seemed in agreement with me. But the outpouring of e-mails I got were running well in favor of Uncle Larry.
Why is this man smiling? For a second year in a row, Oracle awarded its founder, chief executive and single largest shareholder, Larry Ellison, a mega-option grant good for 7 million shares, according to a regulatory filing Ellison made last week. The option, which vests over four years, has a strike price of $20.73 when it was awarded July 3. Last year’s option grant was valued at $50 million, according to the company’s proxy from September 2007. The value of the most recent grant has yet to be published.
Ellison, who sold 102.5 million Oracle shares worth $2.2 billion in the last year, continues to own 1.15 billion shares, which were worth Read the rest of this entry »
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Oracle founder and Chief Executive Larry Ellison ranked as the highest-paid CEO in Silicon Valley in 2007.
So I won’t question Ellison’s right to make more money than most of us can fathom. He did, after all, start a powerhouse of a company whose database software has grown dominant and whose business applications have become competitive thanks to a string of acquisitions.
However, I do have a beef with Ellison’s compensation that should get a sympathetic ear from Oracle’s shareholders: Why is the company doling out more stock to a man who already owns 22.3 percent of the company?
LeapFrog Enterprises, the maker of technology based educational toys, 
During his keynote address to the audience at this year’s JavaOne conference last week, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy took time to introduce a special guest to the stage, saying “there’s kind of a big pink elephant, uh, in the room”, according to a 
Oracle shareholders got a pleasant surprise this week when the Redwood City software giant said it would begin paying its first ever dividend. One shareholder in particular was no doubt especially pleased, though probably not surprised: Oracle founder and chief executive, Larry Ellison, who sits on the board and is also its largest stockholder.
Why is this man smiling? For a second year in a row, Oracle awarded its founder, chief executive and single largest shareholder, Larry Ellison, a mega-option grant good for 7 million shares, according to a 
Subscribe via RSS all feeds