TLDR
- Larry Ellison canceled his plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares worth $7.5 billion.
- No Oracle stock was sold under the plan before it was dropped.
- The shares were worth $8.75 billion when the plan was adopted on June 22, but Oracle stock has fallen 16% since then.
- Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs and now estimates $2.8 billion in workforce reduction costs, up $700 million from its previous estimate.
- Ellison controls roughly 40% of Oracle and would have still held 1.1 billion shares even if the full sale had gone through.
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison has canceled his plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle (ORCL) shares, just one day after the plan was publicly disclosed in a regulatory filing.
Oracle confirmed in a statement that no stock was sold under the plan, and that Ellison has no current intentions to sell any of his Oracle stock.
ORCL stock fell 1.74% on Friday, the same day the original plan was disclosed, after the company reported shrinking gross margins that rattled investors.
The trading plan was adopted on June 22 and was set to run through October 24. At the time of adoption, the 50 million shares were valued at approximately $8.75 billion. Oracle’s stock has since dropped around 16%, reducing the value of that stake to roughly $7.5 billion.
Ellison, 82, controls about 40% of Oracle. Even if the full 50 million shares had been sold, he would still have held approximately 1.1 billion shares in the company.
The planned sale stood out because Ellison has rarely sold stock in recent decades. Since the start of this century, he has never sold more than 25,000 Oracle shares at any one time, according to FactSet.
AI Spending and Job Cuts Weigh on Oracle
Oracle has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure, with clients including OpenAI. That spending has come with a cost, pushing the company deeper into debt and raising investor concerns.
The company is now cutting thousands of jobs as part of an effort to reduce expenses. Oracle disclosed on Friday that it now estimates $2.8 billion in total costs related to the workforce reduction, up $700 million from its earlier projection.
Oracle’s gross margins have been narrowing as AI-related capital expenditures climb. Investors have sent the stock down roughly 20% this year on those concerns.
Despite the pressure, Oracle’s most recent earnings beat estimates. Cloud infrastructure revenue grew 121% year over year, a number that helped offset some of the worry around costs.
Ellison’s Financial Ties Beyond Oracle
Ellison has also been using his personal wealth for ventures outside Oracle. He helped finance the 2025 merger between his son David Ellison’s production company, Skydance, and Paramount.
He has also been linked to a proposed $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance Corp.
The cancellation of the share sale plan may ease some investor concerns about insider confidence in Oracle’s direction.
Oracle’s stock fell 1.74% on Friday after the earnings report showed shrinking gross margins, closing out a rough week for the stock.
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