Early Life

Lawrence was born in 1944 in New York, where he was brought up by his adoptive parents. Since he was a boy, Larry is said to have exhibited an independent, rebellious streak, and a strong aptitude for math and science.

During his second year final exams at University of Illinois, Larry Ellison's adoptive mother passed away, following which, Larry dropped out of school. Later, in the next fall, he enrolled at University of Chicago, but after the first semester, he dropped out again. At the university, computer programming had piqued his interest.
 

Oracle

Larry moved to California, where he worked as a computer programmer for a various companies. While working as a programmer for Ampex, he participated in developing the first IBM-compatible mainframe system.

In 1977, Ellison along with two other Ampex colleagues, Robert Miner and Ed Oates, he founded, Software Development Labs. Ellison came across a paper titled "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" by Edgar F. Codd, that described a concept Codd had developed for IBM. Although Codd's employers were not able to see commercial potential in his concept of a Structured Query Language (SQL), Larry did.

Ellison and his partners secured a two-year contract to design a relational database management system (RDBMS) for the CIA. The project was code named Oracle. They finished work on the project a year ahead of schedule, and used the remaining time to create a commercial application based on the system, which was also named Oracle. Larry wanted Oracle to be IBM compatible, was not able to enter an agreement with IBM, so his system was released as a singular data sharing system. Oracle found a huge market among smaller companies and micro computers where IBM had not reached. The company was renamed Oracle, after its best selling product, and witnessed a rapid rise in value.

Oracle was taken public in 1986, and raised $31.5 million with its IPO. But in 1990, the company registered its first losses. Its market capitalization dipped by 80 percent and the company faced strong possibility of bankruptcy. Prompted by the need for drastic changes, Ellison brought in seasoned managers to handle top positions at the company, himself focusing more on product development. Oracle 7 was released in 1992, and it swept the field. The company became industry leader in the field of database management software and within two years, its stock regained most of its former value.

Oracles value continued to shoot higher through the 90swith American banks, airlines, automobiles and retail giants depending on its database programmes. Benefiting from e-commerce, its net profits grew 76% within a single quarter in 2000.

2004 onwards, Ellison embarked upon an acquisition strategy for Oracle, adding many new companies to the fleet including PeopleSoft, Retek, Siebel Systems and Hyperion Solutions.

Since its inception, Ellison has remained the sole CEO at Oracle.