Larry Ellison Scraps Plan to Sell Up to $7.5 Billion Worth of Oracle Stock

Larry Ellison scrapped plans to sell up to $7.5 billion worth of his Oracle ORCL -1.74%decrease; down pointing triangle stake, a day after the company disclosed the billionaire’s trading plans.

In a statement Saturday, Oracle said Ellison had reversed course. “No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,” it said.

The Oracle co-founder has held on to his very large stake in Oracle since the 1970s. But in a Friday securities filing, Ellison revealed plans for one of his largest share-sales ever.

The Friday filing said that on June 22, Ellison adopted a plan to unload as many as 50 million Oracle shares, valued at about $7.5 billion at recent prices. The filing said he planned to be finished selling shares by Oct. 24.

Ellison is one of the richest people on the planet, but he might also be one of the world’s most indebted and much of his wealth is tied to his Oracle stake. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that about 24% of his approximately $200 billion net worth was pledged as collateral.

He has pledged more than $40 billion to support his son, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison’s hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. in a nearly $80 billion deal.

Oracle has plans to raise as much as $50 billion this year by selling stock and debt. It intends to use the funds to build data centers designed to process an expected boom in artificial-intelligence computing. Morgan Stanley credit analysts expect that it will need at least another $100 billion in 2027 and the first half of 2028.

Concerns over the company’s debt have helped weigh down its share price this year. Oracle shares are down more than 23% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up more than 13%.

In January 2001, Ellison sold nearly $900 million in Oracle stock, just over a month before the company’s shares dropped nearly 22% on lower-than-expected earnings. Ellison eventually agreed to pay $100 million to charity to settle an insider-trading lawsuit brought by shareholders over the matter.