Oracle Trims Larry Ellison Wages

Oracle has revealed the salary Larry Ellison took home during his final year in charge at the database giant – $67.3m.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Ellison’s wages took a 15.5 percent drop in 2014.

Flamboyant Character

Ellison announced last week that he was stepping down from his 37 year-reign as CEO at the company he co-founded. For 2014, he managed to pull in an annual salary of $67.3m (£41m), down from the $79.6m (£48.5m) he took home in 2013.

The 70-year old will now serve as Executive Chairman of the Board, and as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Ellison has been replaced by two CEOs, namely Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, both of whom took home a smaller wage packet of $37.7m (£23m) each for the fiscal year that ended May 2014.

The majority of Ellison’s compensation consisted of stock options, due to the fact that since 2011 his actual annual salary has been just $1 (£0.61). But then again, Ellison is not exactly short of money, thanks to him being a multi billionaire. Indeed, he is reckoned to be the world’s fifth richest man according to Forbes, with a personal fortune of $52bn (£32bn).

The flamboyant Ellison is something of a legend within the IT industry, who even managed a brief cameo appearance in the Iron Man 2 movie.

He has been married and divorced four times, and in 2012 Ellison purchased most of the island of Lanai, Hawaii’s sixth-largest island. He also owns at least two military jets (including a decommissioned MiG-29), as well as numerous exotic cars and a very successful yachting team.

Leaner Wages

Going forward however, it seems future Oracle executives will face less generous wage packets. Oracle has faced internal shareholder unrest in recent years, from investors unhappy at the amount that Ellison has received from the software giant, particularly when it comes to his generous stock options and other incentives.

“Careful scrutiny and caution are warranted because we’re still looking at awards with huge economic value. You’ve got Catz and Hurd on a huge number and Ellison hasn’t taken a huge dip either,” Michael Pryce-Jones, an analyst at CtW Investment Group was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Pryce-Jones has been a critic of Ellison’s compensation in the past.

Indeed, for 2015, the filing revealed that Ellison faces a reduced stock option award of just 2.25 million shares, compared to the 7 million shares he received in fiscal 2014. Catz and Hurd have been granted a special one-time stock option award for 500,000 shares each. They will get stock options of 2.75 million shares each in 2015, down from 5 million in 2014.

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