"If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we're toast. But if it is, we're golden. "

Larry Ellison is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corportion.

Ellison was born in New York City to a young unwed mother who put him up for adoption at nine-months old. He was taken in by Lillian and Louis Ellison. He was known as a bright but unattentive student. After high school he went to college at the University of Illinois, but dropped out due to his adopted mother, Lillian's death. Soon, he re-entered college at the University of Chicago, but dropped out after on semester. Instead, he moved to California and began working for Ampex Corporation; his project was to develop the database called "Oracle" for the CIA.

In 1977, Ellison founded Oracle with $2,000 under the name "Software Development Laboratories," which was renamed "Relational Software Inc," and eventually "Oracle" after the initial product. His system was compatible with the IBM System R, and was released Oracle 2, to imply that all of the bugs had been worked out of an earlier version, which did not exist.

Though Oracle has competitors such as Informix and Sybase, it has enjoyed years of industry dominance. Microsoft's SQL Server and IBM's acquisition of Informix Software in 2000 now complements a DB2 database. Ellison is reported on of the richest people in America by Forbes with a net worth of $18.4 billion; he is the ninth richest man in the world.

The book, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: Inside Oracle Corporation, was published on Ellison's assests and value.

Ellison was married to Melanie Craft on December 18, 2003. Craft is his fourth wife. Steve Jobs, his friend and Apple CEO, was the photographer for the wedding. He has a son and daughter from previous marriages.

Ellison is the principal financier of Oracle BMW Racing, which is now named BMW Racing due to the financial support from BMW. He owns the fourth largest yacht in the world, "Rising Sun." He has a $200 million estate in estate in Woodside, California with a man-made lake and seismic retrofit. He purchased 12 properties in Malibu, CA in 2004-2005 worth more the $180 million.