Larry Ellison has stepped down as the CEO of Oracle, the company he founded and helped grow into one of the most successful business software companies in the world.
News of his departure broke on Thursday afternoon, less than two hours before Oracle's scheduled first-quarter earnings release and call.
A college dropout, Ellison founded the company that would become Oracle in 1977 and had served as CEO since then. The company now has a market capitalization of $182 billion.
The final Larry Ellison scorecard: Oracle stock is up 89,640% since he took the company public in March 1986.— Dennis K. Berman (@dkberman) September 18, 2014
Ellison is not leaving Oracle entirely, instead staying on as the company's chief technical officer. In that role he will oversee the core of Oracle's business, including "all software and hardware engineering functions," according to a press release announcing the move.
He downplayed the change during Thursday's earnings call.
"I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing over the last several years. They're going to continue what they've been doing over the last several years," Ellison said about the change in titles.
Oracle shares dropped in after-hours trading following the news, trading 2.3% lower.
Ellison, who turned 70 in August, is the fifth richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of around $48 billion. He has gained notoriety for spending his wealth in lavish ways including exotic cars, racing yachts and a Hawaiian Island that reportedly cost between $500 million and $600 million.
The news generated no shortage of reactions from those in the tech community that had come to know Ellison.
Congratulations to my longtime hero & sparring partner Larry Ellison on phenomenal nearly-40-year run at Oracle--one of best founders ever.— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) September 18, 2014
Mark Hurd, who had been president, and Safra Catz, who served as chief financial officer, will share the role of CEO.
"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," Ellison said in the press release. "All the other reporting relationships will remain unchanged. 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. Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."
Hurd is a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who had been noted for aggressively cutting costs. He resigned from the company after an internal investigation discovered that he had violated company policy by spending his expenses on a woman who later made a sexual harassment claim against him.
Catz has worked at Oracle since 1999 and sits on its board of directors. She had reportedly been the highest-paid CFO of 2013 with a total compensation package of $43.6 million.