Larry Ellison

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Today in Apple history: Microsoft throws Apple a $150 million lifeline

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Bill Gates
Bill Gates looking like the cat that got the cream.
Photo: Apple

August 6: Today in Apple history: Microsoft investment helps save Apple from doom August 6, 1997: In one of the most famous moments in Apple history, Steve Jobs reveals that Microsoft invested $150 million in its rival.

Although often presented as an inexplicable gesture of good faith on the part of Microsoft boss Bill Gates, the cash infusion into Apple actually benefits both companies.

Today in Apple history: Larry Ellison calls off Apple takeover plans

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Larry Ellison
The takeover didn't happen, but it still changed Apple history.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

April 29: Today in Apple history: Larry Ellison calls off Apple takeover plans April 29, 1997: Steve Jobs’ friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, calls off his bid to take over Apple.

Ellison’s plan is to reinstall Jobs, who is then just an adviser to Apple CEO Gil Amelio, as the company’s chief executive. He also wants to take Apple private again.

Larry Ellison, one of Steve Jobs’ best friends, is joining Tesla’s board

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Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the ultra-successful founder of Oracle.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, the close friend of Steve Jobs who Jobs’ kids called “our rich friend,” has joined Tesla as a member of its board.

Ellison was the first person Jobs sought to join Apple’s board of directors after Jobs resumed control of Apple in the 1990s. He stayed until the early 2000s. Interestingly, in recent years Tesla and Apple have been considered rivals more often due to both of their work in building tech-heavy car projects.

Larry Ellison doesn’t agree with how Apple handled its FBI standoff

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Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison was one of Steve Jobs' best friends.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

Oracle founder Larry Ellison may have been Steve Jobs’ BFF and even considered buying Apple at one point, but he doesn’t agree with everything the company does. In a recent interview, Ellison criticized Apple’s refusal to help hack an iPhone belonging to a shooter in the 2015 San Bernardino attack.

The case blew up into a massive standoff between Apple, in favor of privacy, and the FBI. Speaking on Fox, Ellison called Apple’s behavior, “bizarre.”

Today in Apple history: Happy birthday to Steve Jobs’ best friend, Larry Ellison

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Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison once offered to buy Apple for Jobs to run.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

17AugAugust 17, 1944: Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Oracle, and Steve Jobs’ best friend, is born.

A later member of the Apple board of directors and the closest thing Jobs had to a confidante, in the 1990s Ellison even considered staging a hostile takeover of Apple to reinstall Jobs as CEO during his time away from the company.

Jobs’ son, Reed, reportedly referred to Ellison as, “our rich friend.”

Larry Ellison: Steve Jobs shot down my Apple takeover plans

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Why Salesforce chief gave up AppStore.com for Apple
Oracle's founder says Steve Jobs didn't re-join Apple for the cash.
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison gave the commencement speech at the University of Southern California late last week, and among other things he talked about a plan with his best friend, Steve Jobs, concerning a mid-1990s bid to stage a takeover of Apple.

And how Steve talked him out of it.

Larry Ellison: We Already Know What Happens To Apple Without Steve Jobs

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o-LARRY-ELLISON-ISLAND-AIR-facebook

Tech pundits across the web have been arguing for years about whether Apple can succeed without Steve Jobs, but Steve’s close friend, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, says that we already know what the future holds for Apple.

In an upcoming interview with Charlie Rose on CBS, Ellison says we don’t need to postulate what’s going to happen to Apple because we’ve already seen the after-Jobs experiment:

Well, we already know. We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.

Here’s a clip of the interview:

4 Of The 5 Highest-Paid Execs In The U.S. Work For Apple

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Apple-highest-paid

Four out of the five highest-paid executives in the United States work for Apple, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, but not one of them is CEO Tim Cook.

According to fiscal 2012 compensation figures for top earners filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Apple’s Bob Mansfield, Bruce Sewell, Jeffrey Williams, and Peter Oppenheimer join Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to make up the top five corporate earners last year.

Tim Cook Named Highest Paid CEO In America

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timcooksmiling
No wonder he's always smiling.

Despite taking control of Apple just 18 months ago, Tim Cook has been named by CNBC as the highest paid CEO in America. With an average annual compensation of around $95 million, Cook beats Oracle’s Larry Ellison and JC Penney’s Ron Johnson to the top spot.

What If Larry Ellison And Oracle Had Bought RIM?

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Larry Ellison acknowledged recently that Oracle considered buying RIM
Larry Ellison acknowledged recently that Oracle considered buying RIM

One of the interesting tidbits to emerge from testimony during Oracle panent infringment trial against Google is that Oracle had considered producing its own smartphone and buying either RIM or Palm. The testimony came from Oracle chief Larry Ellison, who was a close personal friend of Steve Jobs. Ellison is, in fact, quoted as describing their relationship as “best friends” in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs.

The news raises some interesting questions – not the least of which are whether Jobs knew of the plan and what impact Oracle jumping into the smartphone game against the iPhone might have had on their friendship. Jobs was obsessed with the idea that Google and its former CEO Eric Schmidt (also a former Apple board member) had ripped off Apple’s iOS design work in creating Android.