Austin, September 15 — Larry Ellison has scrapped a plan to sell up to $7.5 billion worth of Oracle stock, pulling the transactions after a sharp slide in the company’s share price made the sales far less attractive. The bottom line: the co-founder and chief technology officer would rather hold than sell into weakness. The canceled sale, disclosed in a regulatory filing and first reported by financial media on Thursday, ranks among the largest insider stock transactions ever planned.
The original plan, disclosed earlier this year, would have allowed Ellison to sell up to 8 million shares, valued at approximately $7.5 billion based on Oracle’s stock price at the time of the announcement. Oracle’s shares have since fallen significantly, eroding the potential proceeds.
The stock dropped after the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, which showed slower growth in its cloud computing business than some investors had expected. Ellison opted to cancel the transactions rather than sell at lower prices. The decision was disclosed in a regulatory filing, though the exact reasons were not detailed.
A representative for Ellison declined to comment beyond the filing.
A familiar playbook
The planned sale was structured under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, which allows corporate insiders to set up predetermined stock transactions to avoid accusations of trading on inside information. Such plans typically specify the number of shares, price targets, and dates for sales. This is not the first time Ellison has adjusted his stock sales.
He has periodically sold shares to fund personal investments and philanthropic endeavors, including his support for the Ellison Medical Foundation and his ownership of the Lanai island in Hawaii. Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and served as its CEO before stepping down from that role in 2014.
He remains actively involved as CTO and chairman of the board. As of the latest available data, he owns roughly 40% of Oracle’s outstanding shares, a stake that ties the bulk of his fortune to the company’s performance.
What investors will watch
The canceled sale is unlikely to affect Oracle’s day-to-day operations, but it may draw attention to the company’s recent stock performance and the challenges it faces in the competitive cloud market. Oracle, headquartered in Austin, Texas, specializes in database software, cloud engineering, and enterprise resource planning, and has been investing heavily in cloud infrastructure to compete with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Ellison’s trading activity is often scrutinized because of his large stake, and his decision may reassure some investors that he remains confident in Oracle’s prospects.
Others may read it as a sign of concern about near-term performance. Either way, the move underscores how closely executive wealth tracks company stock.
Oracle is scheduled to report its next earnings in the coming weeks, which may provide further insight into its financial health. That report, and any further movement in the share price, will be the next test of whether Ellison’s hold proves the right call.
