Oracle: Larry Ellison’s Brainchild

Larry Ellison is a billionaire businessman and philanthropist who founded Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company.

Ellison was born as Lawrence Joseph Ellison on August 17, 1944 in New York City. Because his single mother could not afford to support him, he was given to Lillian Spellman Ellison and Louis Ellison, his mother’s aunt and uncle, who lived in Chicago.

Ellison spent his boyhood in South Shore, a middle-class neighborhood in Chicago. He attended high school at South Shore High School. He went to the University of Illinois but left the University following the death of his adoptive mother in his second year. He continued his studies at University of Chicago and spent only one term there. During his stay at the University of Chicago, he got interested in computer programming. He was 20.

He used his drive and impatience to excel in computer programming. He was hired by various companies and businesses as computer programmer.

He worked as a programmer for Ampex Corporation which works on a database project for the CIA. Ellison called the project “Oracle.” He read Edgar F. Codd’s “A Rational Model of Data for Large Shared Databanks” and was inspired to put up his own database systems company. With an initial investment of $2000 he established Software Development Laboratories which later became Oracle Corporation.

When Ellison tried to ask IBM to share its code to make his Oracle database system compatible with IBM System R, IBM refused. So for a time, Ellison’s system was a stand-alone data sharing system.

Ellison saw an opportunity to meet with his archrival IBM head on when IBM could not manage to initiate a system for microcomputers and small companies. He produced the systems needed by the small businesses using microcomputers.

Oracle rose to power and led the market in database systems. Its closest rival Sybase was purchased by Microsoft which later became the “SQL Server.”

For a short period of time, Ellison was director of Apple Computer but left the company in 2002. The reason for his resignation was his inability to attend formal meetings.