Larry Ellison steps down as Oracle CEO, but he's not finished yet

Larry Ellison
Ellison will assume a new role at Oracle

Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison has stepped down from his position as CEO of the company effective immediately.

His shoes will be filled by two people: current Oracle presidents Mark Hurd and Safra Catz.

But Ellison isn't leaving Oracle entirely, as he'll now assume the role of executive chairman and chief technology officer.

And despite his vast wealth and age (Ellison is 70) it seems he won't be taking it easy with his new duties.

What retirement plan

"Larry has made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy," Oracle board director Dr. Michael Boskin said in a press release.

He added that Hurd and Catz, "have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to lead, manage and grow the company" and said Oracle's board is confident in their ability to lead the company.

Ellison co-founded Oracle and had been CEO since 1977. He made $78.4 million (about £50m, AU$90m) in 2013 and even more than that the year prior, making him the highest-paid CEO among the 100 largest public companies in the US for multiple years running.

He also expressed confidence in his replacements.

"The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future," Ellison said. "Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."

Last we heard Oracle was preparing to wage war on the cloud, a strategy it's not likely to abandon any time soon.

Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.


Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.