Ellison reaps $706 million from options
According to a proxy filing, Larry Ellison, Oracle's outspoken chief executive, made $706 million by exercising stock options in the database company during its most recent fiscal year.
Friday's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Ellison had 47.9 million exercisable options still available at the end of the company's fiscal year, which closed May 31. Those options are valued around $497.6 million, according to the filing.
Ellison, Oracle's largest shareholder, was not granted additional options, and he did not receive a bonus or a salary during the past fiscal year, according to the filing. In fact, many of the company's top executives did not receive stock-options grants during the fiscal year, the document shows.
Ellison also pulled in about $942,000 in 2001 by leasing an aircraft to Oracle through his company Wing and a Prayer. Oracle "believes that the amount billed for the use of the aircraft and the pilots are within the range charged by third-party commercial charter companies for similar model aircraft," according to the filing.
In fiscal 2000, Ellison received a base salary of $208,000 and no bonus, but he did receive 40 million options. The options grant is intended to be the only such grant he receives in the four-year period from fiscal 2000 through fiscal 2003, according to the filing.
In 1999, he received a $1 million salary and a $2.75 million bonus, according to the filing.
One of the most avidly followed competitions in the tech world is the wealth race between Ellison and Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft. Each stock gyration shifts the relative levels of their treasure chests. At one point during 2000, Ellison surpassed Gates as the richest man, but the Microsoft executive later took back the crown as the richest man in Forbes magazine's wealth rankings.