Larry Ellison Ends Plan to Sell Up to $7.5 Billion in Oracle Stock

Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison canceled his plan to sell as many as 50 million shares in the tech company, a holding worth $7.5 billion, a day after the company disclosed the founder’s divestment plan.

“No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,” the company said in a statement, which came a day after the disclosure that Ellison sought to divest the shares through a trading program permitting the sale of as many as 50 million shares through Oct. 24.

The shares were worth about $8.75 billion when the plan was adopted on June 22, but Oracle’s stock has since fallen 16%. Ellison controls about 40% of the company.

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The cloud technology firm is facing growing pressure from investors as its massive artificial intelligence-related spending tied to clients such as OpenAI weighs on its balance sheet. It began cutting thousands of jobs as part of efforts to save cash and disclosed on Friday it now estimates $2.8 billion in costs related to the workforce reduction — an increase of $700 million from its previous projection.

The decision to drop the share sale plan may work to assuage some of those concerns. The company’s shares fell 1.7% on Friday after it reported shrinking gross margins, escalating concerns about its spending plans.

Larry Ellison has been a major financial backer of his son David’s business activities, including Paramount Skydance Corp.’s proposed $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.