A couple of years back, I detailed a massive and regular stock sale by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison that netted him $1 billion in little over a year.
AP
Larry Ellison
Then, about a year ago, Oracle announced plans to issue its first dividend, and while a nickel a share might not have sounded like much, when you're Ellison, with 1.15 billion shares still in hand even after that big sell-off, it amounted to a cool $57.5 million as of May 8 last year, and a total of $230 million as of last month.
Well, dollars just don't go as far as they used to, and in such a tough economy it's getting more difficult to make ends meet. I mean, living in a $100 million home carries expenses, and snapping up a quarter billion dollars in Malibu real estate must be mortgage hell.
So, Larry's at it again. Earlier Monday, Oracle adopted another 10b5-1 trading plan for Ellison, "part of his individual long-term strategy for asset diversification and liquidity," the release states.
Rule 10b5-1, Oracle says, "allows corporate officers and directors to adopt written, pre-arranged stock trading plans when they do not have material, non-public information. Using these plans, insiders can gradually diversify their investment portfolios, can spread stock trades out over an extended period of time to reduce any market impact and can avoid concerns about whether they had material, non-public information when they sold their stock."
Under the current filing, Ellison may sell up to 50 million shares over a period of approximately ten months, which if Oracle shares don't move from their $26.50 level as of today, works out to another $1.325 billion in Larry's pocket. Not bad.
Oracle says "some of these shares may be acquired through the exercise of employee stock options. If Mr. Ellison completes all the planned sales under his Rule 10b5-1 Plan, he would beneficially own approximately 1.127 billion shares (approximately 22.3 percent) of Oracle's outstanding stock, worth just shy of $30 billion at today's close, or 6 times the net worth of close buddy Steve Jobs, even with Apple's recent surge.
Larry's sales could begin as early as June. Always a good thing for investors to keep track of insider trading, buying AND selling. Wonder if Larry's stocking up so he can pay cash for the Golden State Warriors, which already play their home games inside Oakland's Oracle Arena? Maybe some enriched uranium? Another MiG? Another...? More...? Who knows.
In case you were wondering, it indeed still is very good to be Larry.
Questions? Comments? TechCheck@cnbc.com