U.S. software giant Oracle quickly emerged as a frontrunner this week, winning a deal to manage TikTok’s U.S. cloud operation, after Microsoft confirmed that the app’s parent company ByteDance rejected its offer for control over its U.S. operations. Facing political pressure from the Trump administration and threats of an outright ban if a deal couldn’t be reached by mid-September, the popular video app was said to be the focus of acquisition talks with several U.S. technology and retail companies. But unlike some companies reportedly vying for the bid, multiple executives from the enterprise-focused Oracle enjoy links to the Trump administration. While Microsoft was viewed as a favored candidate, Trump himself praised Oracle and its co-founder, Larry Ellison, when asked about the deal in an August briefing. “I think Oracle is a great company, and I think its owner is a tremendous guy. He’s a tremendous person. I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it. Yeah. We gave them until Sept. 15,” the president said at the time. Ellison, 76, co-founded Oracle in 1977 and served as its CEO until September 2014. He is now chairman and chief technology officer. According to Forbes, as of Monday he had a net worth of over US$74 billion and owns 35.4 percent of the company. In a list of the top 400 wealthiest Americans in 2020, Ellison was ranked at No. 5. On a global scale, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index placed Ellison as the 11th richest person in the world as of Monday, although that rich list shifts on a daily basis. He is also one of the few tech industry figureheads who has supported the president. In February this year, the billionaire opened his estate in Rancho Mirage, California, for a campaign fundraising event, with supporters paying US$100,000 to get a golf outing and have their photo taken with Trump, according to The Desert Sun paper. For US$250,000, they could also participate in a round-table discussion. The move didn’t sit well with hundreds of Oracle employees, who staged a protest a few days later, with some leaving their office to attend volunteering work. The Hill reported the fundraising event came after the Trump administration sided with Oracle over Google in an ongoing copyright case. Clarifying his position to Forbes, Ellison later said he had never personally given money to the president’s efforts and played down the campaign fundraiser. He stated: “I said President Trump could use the property. I was not here. We only have one president at a time. I don’t think he’s the devil — I support him and want him to do well.” Ellison bought most of an Hawaiian island called Lanai for around US$300 million in 2012 and joined Tesla’s board in 2018 after purchasing about 3 million shares. And it’s more than just money that Ellison has gifted Trump. This March, it was Ellison himself who informed Trump about the wonders of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. He also reportedly offered to have Oracle help collect data about the drug, free of charge. He is not the only Oracle executive with links to Trump. Its current chief executive officer Safra Catz joined the then-president-elect’s transition team while still keeping his position at Oracle in December 2016, a move that resulted in the resignation of another senior executive, George Polisner, 57. Catz has also donated more than US$130,000 toward Trump’s re-election. In 2019, Oracle gave between US$500,000 and US$999,999 to Trade Works for America, a Republican operation to support Trump’s North American Free Trade Agreement bill. In April, Ellison and Catz told Oracle employees they had set up a cloud system to help the government’s efforts to record data about COVID-19 treatments. Ellison spoke with Trump by phone and offered the work for free, according to Business Insider. The billionaire is one of the most interesting men in tech. Whether yacht racing, buying whole Hawaiian islands, or trash-talking competitors, there’s always a good chance people will be surprised with what Ellison does next. Ellison was born in the Bronx, New York City, on Aug. 17, 1944, the son of a single mother named Florence Spellman. After he had a bout of pneumonia at the age of 9 months, she sent him to Chicago to live with her aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison, who adopted the child. He attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign from 1962 but dropped out in 1964 shortly after Lillian’s death. He had been very close to his adoptive mother but had a much more difficult relationship with Louis, who often told him that he would never amount to anything. In 1966, the 22-year-old Ellison moved to Berkeley, California — near the future Silicon Valley and already the place where the tech industry was taking off. He made the trip from Chicago to California in a flashy turquoise Thunderbird that he thought would make an impression in his new life. Ellison bounced around from job to job, including stints at companies like Wells Fargo and the mainframe manufacturer Amdahl. Along the way, he learned computer and programming skills. The turning point came when Ellison came to work for the electronics company Ampex, which had a contract to build a database for the CIA codenamed “Oracle.” Ellison left Ampex in 1976 and later joined Precision Instruments (later Omex), where he was vice president of research and development. In 1977, Ellison and partners Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded a new company, Software Development Laboratories. The company started with US$2,000 of funding, US$1,200 of which came out of Ellison’s own pocket. The first version of the Oracle database was version 2 — there was no version 1. In 1979, the company renamed itself Relational Software Inc., and in 1982, it formally became Oracle Systems Corp., after its flagship product. As one of the key drivers of the growing computer industry, Oracle grew fast. In 1986, Oracle had its initial public offering, reporting revenue of US$55 million. In 1987 Oracle became the largest database-management company in the world. However, in 1990 an internal audit conducted in the wake of a shareholder’s lawsuit revealed that Oracle had overstated its earnings, and the company’s stock plunged dramatically. Ellison restructured Oracle’s management, and by the end of 1992 the company had returned to financial health. Ellison had more success with his early embrace of the Internet. Oracle developed products that were compatible with World Wide Web technologies, which helped the company to grow. In the early 2000s Ellison started Oracle on an aggressive strategy of buying rival software companies. In the 2010s, Ellison started to take more of a back seat, handing more responsibilities to trusted lieutenants, like Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, then Oracle’s co-presidents. In 2014, Ellison officially stepped down as Oracle CEO, handing control over to Hurd and Katz, who became co-CEOs. Ellison now serves as the company’s chairman and chief technology officer. Ellison, who didn’t become a billionaire until age 49, was one of Silicon Valley’s most divisive figures, being both admired for his great success and deplored for his sometimes ruthless business methods and his conspicuous consumption. He has spent lavishly over the years, so much so that his accountant, Philip Simon, once asked him to “budget and plan.” But Ellison’s spending didn’t slow down. In 2012, he bought 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai. He started to indulge in some expensive hobbies — including yacht racing. He also sponsors the Oracle USA sailing team, which won the America’s Cup in 2010. In 2009, Ellison purchased the Indian Wells tennis tournament for a reported US$100 million. Ellison is also a noted philanthropist. In 2010, he signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate 95 percent of his fortune before he dies. And in May 2016, Ellison donated US$200 million to a cancer treatment center at the University of Southern California. Ellison has been married and divorced four times. Coupled with his extreme wealth, it’s given him a reputation as an international, jet-setting playboy. (SD-Agencies) | 