For decades, Larry Ellison was the go-to voice on Oracle's quarterly analyst calls. Even after he handed off the CEO title in 2014, he stayed front and center, missing only on rare occasions, like a 2013 absence tied to the America's Cup. This year marks a break from that pattern, with Ellison not participating in Oracle's earnings calls.
The change comes as Oracle put two leaders at the top: At the same time, Oracle elevated Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to serve jointly as CEOs, a move aimed at tightening the company's emphasis on cloud infrastructure. Look at the agenda for Oracle's annual user conference next month and you'll see keynotes headlined by the co-CEOs, with no Ellison billing in the promotional lineup.
Bloomberg Originals kicked off its new series on major personalities, Prolific, with a 21-minute, 9-second episode titled "How Larry Ellison Built His Empire." It follows Ellison's journey from an adopted kid in Chicago to becoming one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in tech, painting a picture of a relentless competitor. The film also revisits a line long connected to Ellison, even though it's traced to Genghis Khan: "It's not enough that I win - everybody else has to lose."
The documentary covers Ellison's long-running sparring with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his aggressive acquisition streak. Tom Siebel recalls that Ellison dispatched ice-cream vans to the parking lot of his company to attract hires, and Oracle eventually acquired the business. Today, Oracle is leaning into AI, using its lucrative software base to build very large data centers for customers including OpenAI.
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Ellison may be taking a smaller slice of the spotlight, but his grip on the controls is intact as the board's chairman and as chief technology officer, and through his roughly 40% personal stake in Oracle. When the founder steps back from the mic but not the mission, it's a reminder to watch where the long-term bets are going, not just who is narrating them.
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