Despite Massive Share Sales Plan, Ellison Still Rules Oracle (ORCL)

There was interesting story this weekend, and that is a massive planned share sale out of chief Oracle Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL).  The numbers look massive with a more than $2 Billion stake potentially being sold over the next 9 months under a Rule 10b5-1 Plan.  While the numbers are massive on Main Street, this repesents less than 10% of his holdings and slightly under 4 days trading volume.  This won’t make any change to Ellison as one of America’s most entrenched corporate leaders we gave earlier in the year.

Under this Rule 10b5-1 Plan, Larry Ellison may sell up to 100 million shares over a period of approximately nine months and gift up to an additional 2 million shares to the Ellison Medical Foundation. Some shares are options set to expire in July 2008.  Upon completion of the 10b5-1 Plan (assuming all are sold), Ellison will beneficially own approximately 1.173 billion shares (or about 22.7%) of Oracle’s outstanding stock.

This cool $2 Billion, officially listed as part of his individual long-term strategy for asset diversification and liquidity, ought to buy a few more super-yachts and super-sonic jets. The transactions under this plan will start no earlier than September2007 following the first quarter earnings release and will bedisclosed publicly through Form 144 and Form 4 filings with the SEC.

Jon C. Ogg
July 23, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.