Larry Ellison, executive chairman and co-founder of OracleOracle Corporation's former headquarters inRedwood Shores, CaliforniaUSA 17 at Oracle Corporation HeadquartersPicture of the Oracle Austin Riverside Campus in 2018
Larry Ellison,Bob Miner, andEd Oates co-founded Oracle in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, asSoftware Development Laboratories (SDL).[2][11] Beginning as consultants with a background in large-scale memory after a project forAmpex,[12] Ellison took inspiration[13] from the 1970 paper written byEdgar F. Codd on relational database management systems (RDBMS) named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks."[14] He heard about theIBM System R database[12] from an article in theIBM Research Journal provided by Oates. Ellison wanted to make Oracle's product compatible with System R, but failed to do so as IBM kept the error codes for their DBMS a secret. SDL changed its name toRelational Software, Inc (RSI) in 1979,[15] then again toOracle Systems Corporation in 1983,[16] to align itself more closely with its flagship productOracle Database. The name also drew from the codename of a 1977 project for theCentral Intelligence Agency, Oracle's first customer;[17][18][11] the company received permission to use the code name for the new product.[12] (According to Oracle executive Mike Humphries, Miner told him that the new company had the choice of the CIA database project or another offer to develop a compiler for thePDP-4, and the founders flipped a coin to decide.)[19]
Miner served as a senior programmer, and Oates also worked in development. The three founders decided that Ellison was the worst programmer so he became the salesman. Understanding both customers and technology, Ellison designeddatabase tables that he used to demonstrate the power ofSQL to customers.[12] By February 1983 theRosen Electronics Letter said that Oracle was "the most comprehensive offering we've seen" among databases, with good marketing and a substantial installed base encouraging developers to write software for it. The newsletter said that revenue in fiscal 1983 would be about $8 million and would double in 1984.[20] On March 12, 1986, the company had itsinitial public offering.[21] In 1989, Oracle moved its world headquarters to theRedwood Shores neighborhood ofRedwood City, California, though itscampus[22] was not completed until 1995.[23] The company hired so many from top universities that Humphries compared it to "Cargill buying crops". Some new employees worked as receptionists or distributed coffee until more suitable positions became available.[12]
Oracle in the late 1980s began sellingenterprise software running on the database, starting withfinancial software, then manufacturing. Many at Oracle wanted to discontinue applications; the first several versions were weak, they competed with the company'sindependent software vendors andvalue-added reseller partners, and applications were never profitable for Oracle until after 2000. Selling them (and acquiring vendors such asJD Edwards andPeopleSoft, the latter being the secondhostile takeover in the history of software) nonetheless allowed Oracle to compete withSAP; by the mid-2000s it was the world's largest enterprise software vendor. The company's Ken Jacobs later said:[12]
It created a strategic footprint in our customers. It gave us a whole stack, a credible stack. And we could now sell at a higher point into the companies, into the board room. And, our large customers wanted to consider us a strategic partner, rather than just a vendor of technology. So, it has, actually, had a big impact on the way our sales force could sell.
In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name toOracle Corporation,[24] officially named Oracle, but is sometimes referred to as Oracle Corporation, the name of the holding company.[25]
Oracle acquired the following technology companies:
On July 15, 2013, Oracle transferred its stock listing fromNasdaq to theNew York Stock Exchange. At the time, it was the largest-ever U.S. market transfer.[26]
In an effort to compete withAmazon Web Services and its products, Oracle announced in 2019 it was partnering with former rivalMicrosoft. The alliance claimed thatOracle Cloud andMicrosoft Azure would be directly connected, allowing customers of each to store data on bothcloud computing platforms and run software on either Oracle or Azure. Some saw this not only as an attempt to compete with Amazon but also withGoogle andSalesforce, which acquiredLooker andTableau Software, respectively.[27]
In 2018, Oracle opened a new office in southeast Austin, Texas.[28] In December 2020, Oracle announced that it was moving its world headquarters from Redwood Shores to Austin, Texas.[29]
In December 2021, Oracle announced the acquisition ofCerner, ahealth information technology company.[30] The acquisition of Cerner was completed on June 8, 2022, for US$28.3 billion in cash.[31] Also in December 2021, Oracle announced the acquisition of Federos, anartificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools company for network performance.[32]
In February 2023, the company announced it was going to invest $1.5 billion into theKingdom of Saudi Arabia, including opening a data centre in the country's capital,Riyadh.[33]
In April 2024, Oracle announced it was moving its world headquarters from Austin to a new complex inNashville, Tennessee.[34] No timeframe was given.
In June 2024, Oracle announced a $1 billion investment in Spain to enhance artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This investment will create a new cloud region in Madrid in partnership withTelefónica. The goal is to help Spanish businesses and the public sector with digital transformation and to meetEuropean Union regulations.[35]
In January 2025, PresidentDonald Trump announcedStargate, a joint venture by Oracle,OpenAI,SoftBank and investment firmMGX to invest $500 billion over four years in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US.[36]
Oracle Database - The company's first and, through at least the year 2000, only profitable product.[12]
Release 10: In 2004, Oracle Corporation shipped release 10g (g standing for "grid") as the then latest version ofOracle Database. (Oracle Application Server 10g usingJava EE integrated with the server part of that version of the database, making it possible to deployweb-technology applications. The application server was the firstmiddle-tier software designed forgrid computing. The interrelationship betweenOracle 10g andJava allowed developers to set upstored procedures written in the Java language, as well as, those written in the traditional Oracle database programming language,PL/SQL.)[citation needed]
Release 11: Release 11g became available in 2007. Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 11g Release 2 in September 2009. This version was available in four commercial editions—Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, and Personal Edition—and in one free edition—the Express Edition. The licensing of these editions shows various restrictions and obligations that were called complex by licensing expert Freirich Florea.[37] The Enterprise Edition (DB EE), the most expensive of the Database Editions, has the fewest restrictions—but nevertheless has complex licensing. Oracle Corporation constrains the Standard Edition (DB SE) and Standard Edition One (SE1) with more licensing restrictions, in accordance with their lower price.
Release 12: Release 12c (c standing for "cloud") became available on July 1, 2013.[38]
Oracle Corporation has acquired and developed the following additional database technologies:
Oracle Rdb, a relational database system running onOpenVMS platforms. Oracle acquired Rdb in 1994 fromDigital Equipment Corporation. Oracle has since made many enhancements to this product and development continues as of 2008[update].
TimesTen, which features in-memory database operations
Released in 2008, theOracle Beehivecollaboration software providesteam workspaces (includingwikis, team calendaring and file sharing), email, calendar, instant messaging, and conferencing on a single platform. Customers can use Beehive as licensed software or assoftware as a service ("SaaS").[40]
Oracle Applications, software sold by Oracle based on its own database, first appeared in the late 1980s.[12] Following a number of acquisitions beginning in 2003, especially in the area of applications, Oracle Corporation as of 2008[update] maintains a number of product lines:
Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (usingOracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example,Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports/BIPublisher).[41][42] Oracle Corporation has started[43] a drive toward "wizard"-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.
Oracle Corporation works with "Oracle Certified Partners" to enhance its overall product marketing. The variety of applications from third-party vendors includesdatabase applications for archiving, splitting and control,ERP andCRM systems, as well as more niche and focused products providing a range of commercial functions in areas likehuman resources, financial control andgovernance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). Vendors includeHewlett-Packard, Creoal Consulting, UC4 Software,[44]Motus,[45] and Knoa Software.[46]
Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) provides web-based monitoring and management tools for Oracle products (and for some third-party software), including database management, middleware management, application management, hardware and virtualization management and cloud management.[47]
ThePrimavera products of Oracle's Construction & Engineering Global Business Unit (CEGBU) consist ofproject-management software.[48]
Oracle Cloud is acloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation manageddata centers. The company allows these services to beprovisioned on demand over theInternet.[55]
On July 28, 2016, Oracle boughtNetSuite, the first cloud company, for $9.3 billion.[59] NetSuite provides cloud ERP, CRM, supply chain and e-commerce software to small and medium-sized businesses. It is regarded as the first fully cloud company in the world and is an industry leader in its own right.
Oracle has branded its Platform as a Service asOracle Cloud Platform. Oracle Cloud Platform include Data Management, Application Development, Integration, Content and Experience, Business Analytics, Management and Security.[60][61]
Platform services on which to build and deploy applications or extend SaaS applications: database, Java application server, mobile, business analytics, integration, process, big data,Internet of Things,Node.js etc.[62]
Data as a Service (DaaS)
Oracle Data Cloud is composed of several acquisitions includingAddThis,BlueKai, Crosswise,Datalogix, Grapeshot, and Moat.[63]
Oracle IaaS, branded as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), offerings include the following services.[64]
Compute Service
Storage Service
Network Service
On May 16, 2018, Oracle announced that it had acquired DataScience.com, a privately held cloud workspace platform for data science projects and workloads.[65]
Oracle Consulting – technical and business expert services
Oracle Financing
Oracle Marketing & Support
Product support: Oracle Corporation identifies its customers and their support entitlements using CSI (Customer Support Identifier) codes.[67] Registered customers can submitService Requests (SRs)[68]—usually via the web-accessible My Oracle Support[69] (MOS),[70] a re-incarnation of Oracle Metalink[71] with web access administered by a site Customer User Administrator (CUA).[72]
Critical Patch Updates: since 2005 Oracle Corporation has grouped collections ofpatches and security fixes for its products each quarter into a "Critical Patch Update" (CPU), released each January, April, July and October.[73]
Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM, previously Customer Configuration repository or CCR) gathers and uploads details of the configuration of Oracle software.[74]
Oracle Auto Service Request (ASR) automatically creates Service Requests for specific hardware faults on qualified Oracle server, storage,Oracle Exadata, andOracle Exalogic products.[75]
NetSuite Social Impact program assists nonprofits with moving operations to the cloud. In October 2018, Oracle announced the expansion of the program to include product donation, pro bono expansion and online community building.[78]
As of September 13, 2020, Oracle acquired a trade deal with theByteDance owned social video platformTikTok. This was the result of an executive order issued by U.S. presidentDonald Trump stating that TikTok must be sold to a U.S. company by September 15, 2020. The exact nature of the agreement is still unknown, but it implies that Oracle will become TikTok's technology partner and assume responsibility for the company's U.S. user data. The agreement is still pending approval from regulatory government bodies.[79][80] As of April 2025, TikTok continues to operate in the US under Chinese ownership and multiple US companies, including Oracle, expressed interest in acquiring 50% ownership.[81]
In 1990, Oracle laid off 10% (about 400 people) of its work force because of accounting errors.[82] This crisis came about because of Oracle's "up-front" marketing strategy, in which sales people urged potential customers to buy the largest possible amount of software all at once. The sales people then booked the value of future license sales in the current quarter, thereby increasing their bonuses.[83] This became a problem when the future sales subsequently failed to materialize. Oracle eventually had to restate its earnings twice, and also settled (out of court)class-action lawsuits arising from its having overstated its earnings. Ellison stated in 1992 that Oracle had made "an incredible business mistake".[82]
Humphries described the cause—"building for years"—as a combination of technical problems that benefited rivals, and the sales force usingside letters and other improper tactics to meet the company's longstanding goal of doubling revenue each year. Ellison hired ("bring in adults", Jerry Held said) new executivesJeff Henley andRaymond J. Lane, who helped the company recover from what Ken Jacobs later described as a "near death experience", in which Oracle required an investment from a Japanese steel company to meet payroll.[12]
The relational database industry was unusually concentrated. Besides being headquartered near each other in theSan Francisco Bay area, database technology experts attended the same universities and served on the same standards committees (withJim Gray serving as neutral arbiter as companies tried to get competing proposals enacted).[84] Sales and marketing people were both fierce rivals and often moved between the companies, even as engineers socialized with each other. The smaller, later-founded database vendors viewed Oracle as their top enemy[85]—the "evil empire", said Bob MacDonald ofInformix Software— while Humphries described his company as "theKlingons of" the bay.[84]
Held later described his company's philosophy as "it's not good enough for Oracle to win. It was important for somebody else to lose".Ingres was its first major competitor; Oracle's strategy of focusing on one opponent at a time—even publicly complimenting other rivals "to take the pressure off", Held said—while effective, caused it to neglectSybase as a threat. Conversely, when Sybase had technical problems "it was: how do you put every ounce of product marketing, sales effort and focus on that".[12]IBM's endorsement of SQL inDb2 in the early 1980s benefited Oracle and forced rivals like Ingres andInformix Corporation to adopt SQL to compete.[86][87] Oracle acknowledged IBM as the standard while emphasizing its own superiority, touting "total IBM SQL compatibility" while IBM's software ran "only on IBM mainframes".[88] By the mid-1980s the company described its database as "the last DBMS", bragging that Oracle now had larger database revenue thandBASE makerAshton-Tate,[89] and stating that Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, and Sybase's plannedMicrosoft SQL Server "jumped on Oracle's SQL bandwagon".[90]
MacDonald credited Oracle with "being marketing oriented before any of the competitors ... pushing the envelope on selling the future way ahead of the rest of us".[87] Stu Schuster of Sybase said "Larry taught us a lot about marketing". While other database companies' brochures emphasized technical features, Oracle advertisements showed an Oracle jet fighter shooting down an Ashton-Tate biplane.[89][19][12] dBASE, IBM, and Db2 were among the many competitors Oracle marketing criticized by name.[88] Conversely, another Oracle ad quoted Microsoft'sBill Gates, Sun'sScott McNealy, Hewlett-Packard'sJohn A. Young, andApple Computer'sJohn Sculley as agreeing with Ellison on Oracle's database breakthroughs.[91] Larry Rowe of Ingres said "you could never come up with a strategy to beat Oracle because whatever you said today, two days later Ellison was saying it with more marketing dollars".[85] Jacobs said, by contrast:[12]
It really surprises me when people say Oracle's a great marketing machine because by definition, if you think a company has great marketing, they don't. If you think they have great technology then they do have a great marketing machine. Larry's belief has fundamentally always been that marketing isn't critical; he's famous for saying, "If you're not building the product and you're not selling it, tell me what it is you do." Because those are the things that he felt were important. So marketing has never been a focus.
The "benchmark wars" began in the early 1980s;[85]Roger Sippl of Informix said that when his company's product beat Oracle on 27 of 30benchmarks, advertisements titled "Oracle wins again!" appeared citing the three it won,[87] and Ellison allegedly called Dave DeWitt at theUniversity of Wisconsin after he developed a benchmark unfavorable to Oracle, threatening to get the professor fired.[85] Schuster and Held recalled "a not very pleasant environment because it was so directly competitive". They and Sippl described "a vicious cycle" of companies battling each other over, for example, whosedistributed database had the besttwo-phase commit:[92][87][19]
The ads weren't to let me show you how my product helps you solve your business problem, Mr. Customer. It's let me tell you how much better I am than the guy down the street to the point of taking out billboards.
Even IBM participated in the "billboard wars".[19] By 1995 Oracle had 44% of the $2.4 billion relational database market; Sybase had 17% and Informix had 16%. By 1996 Informix, after acquiringIllustra, became Oracle's most important rival.[93] The intense war between Informix CEO Phil White and Ellison made front-page news inSilicon Valley for three years. Informix claimed that Oracle had hired away Informix engineers to disclose important trade secrets about an upcoming product. Informix finally dropped its lawsuit against Oracle in 1997.[94] Held said[12]
And, in one year, we kind of turned the focus from Sybase to Informix, and basically they never knew what hit them. It was such a concerted effort. I mean, it was amazing how you could get product management, marketing, and sales focused. We had a thing, "Where in the world is Phil White," because Phil White was their best sales person. If he went into an account, one of our best guys was in right after them to make sure that they didn't win that business. It was such amazingly focused effort. And within 12 months, Informix was basically on the floor.
In November 2005, a book detailing the war between Oracle and Informix was published, titledThe Real Story of Informix Software and Phil White. It gave a detailed chronology of the battle of Informix against Oracle, and how Informix Software's CEO Phil White landed in jail because of his obsession with overtaking Ellison.
After what Held described as "the period of time where some of the wheels came off, first at Ingres then at Sybase, and then at Informix", Oracle was the only substantial independent database vendor until Microsoft SQL Server became widespread in the late 1990s[92] and IBM acquired Informix Software in 2001 (to complement its Db2 database). Today[update] Oracle competes for new database licenses on UNIX, GNU, and Windows operating systems primarily against IBM's Db2 and Microsoft SQL Server. IBM's Db2 still[update] dominates the mainframe database market.
In 2004, Oracle's sales grew at a rate of 14.5% to $6.2 billion, giving it 41.3% and the top share of the relational-database market (InformationWeek – March 2005), with market share estimated at up to 44.6% in 2005 by some sources.[95]Oracle Corporation's main competitors in the database arena remain IBM Db2 and Microsoft SQL Server, and to a lesser extent Sybase andTeradata,[92][95] withfree databases such asPostgreSQL andMySQL also having a significant[96] share of the market.EnterpriseDB, based on PostgreSQL, has recently[update] made inroads[97] by proclaiming that its product delivers Oracle compatibility features[clarification needed] at a much lower price-point.
As of 2007[update] Oracle's top competitors are IBM, Microsoft,[12] and in applications,[98][99] SAP. On March 22, 2007,Oracle sued SAP, accusing them of fraud and unfair competition.[100]
In the market forbusiness intelligence software, many other software companies—small and large—have successfully competed in quality with Oracle and SAP products. Business intelligence vendors can be categorized into the "big four" consolidated BI firms such as Oracle, who has entered BI market through a recent trend of acquisitions (includingHyperion Solutions), and the independent "pure play" vendors such asMicroStrategy,Actuate, andSAS.[101]
Oracle Financials was ranked in the Top 20 Most Popular Accounting Software Infographic by Capterra in 2014, beating out SAP and a number of their other competitors.[102]
From 1988, Oracle Corporation and the German companySAP AG had a decade-long history of cooperation, beginning with the integration of SAP'sR/3 enterprise application suite with Oracle's relational database products. Despite the SAP partnership with Microsoft, and the increasing integration of SAP applications with Microsoft products (such as Microsoft SQL Server, a competitor to Oracle Database), Oracle and SAP continue their cooperation. According to Oracle Corporation, the majority of SAP's customers use Oracle databases.[103]
In 2004, Oracle began to increase its interest in the enterprise-applications market (in 1989, Oracle had already released Oracle Financials). A series of acquisitions by Oracle Corporation began, most notably with those ofPeopleSoft,Siebel Systems, andHyperion.
SAP recognized that Oracle had started to become a competitor in a markets where SAP had theleadership, and saw an opportunity to lure in customers from those companies that Oracle Corporation had acquired. SAP would offer those customers special discounts on the licenses for its enterprise applications.
Oracle Corporation would resort to a similar strategy, by advising SAP customers to get "OFF SAP" (a play on the words of theacronym for its middleware platform "Oracle Fusion for SAP"),[104] and also by providing special discounts on licenses and services to SAP customers who chose Oracle Corporation products.
Currently[update] Oracle and SAP (the latter through its recently acquired subsidiaryTomorrowNow) compete in the third-party enterprise software maintenance and support market. On March 22, 2007, Oracle filed a lawsuit against SAP. InOracle Corporation v. SAP AG Oracle alleged that TomorrowNow, which provides discount support for legacy Oracle product lines, used the accounts of former Oracle customers to systematically download patches and support documents from Oracle's website and to appropriate them for SAP's use.[105] Some analysts have suggested the suit could form part of a strategy by Oracle Corporation to decrease competition with SAP in the market for third-party enterprise software maintenance and support.[106][107]
On July 3, 2007, SAP admitted that TomorrowNow employees had made "inappropriate downloads" from the Oracle support website. However, it claims that SAP personnel and SAP customers had no access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow. SAP's CEOHenning Kagermann stated that "Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred." Additionally, SAP announced that it had "instituted changes" in TomorrowNow's operational oversight.[108]
On November 23, 2010, aU.S. district court jury inOakland, California, found that SAP AG must pay Oracle Corp $1.3 billion for copyright infringement, awarding damages that could be the largest-ever for copyright infringement. While admitting liability, SAP estimated the damages at no more than $40 million, while Oracle claimed that they are at least $1.65 billion. The awarded amount is one of the 10 or 20 largest jury verdicts in U.S. legal history. SAP said they were disappointed by the verdict and might appeal.[109] On September 1, 2011, a federal judge overturned the judgment and offered a reduced amount or a new trial, calling Oracle's original award "grossly" excessive.[110] Oracle chose a new trial.
On August 3, 2012, SAP and Oracle agreed on a judgment for $306 million in damages, pending approval from the U.S. district court judge, "to save time and expense of [a] new trial". After the accord has been approved, Oracle can ask a federal appeals court to reinstate the earlier jury verdict. In addition to the damages payment, SAP has already paid Oracle $120 million for its legal fees.[111]
Oracle was ranked No. 82 in the 2018Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[126] According to Bloomberg, Oracle's CEO-to-employee pay ratio is 1,205:1. The CEO's compensation in 2017 was $108,295,023. Oracle is one of the approved employers ofACCA and the median employee compensation rate was $89,887.[127]
Larry Ellison: ex-executive chairman and CTO (since September 2014), co-founder of the company, previously CEO (1977–2014),[129] previously chairman (1990–2004). As of September 2021, he owned 42% of the company.[3] As of 2025 Ellison remains a top executive but no longer CEO.[130]
Safra Catz: CEO (since September 2014),[129] previously co-president (since 2004) and CFO.[131] In 2016, she was ranked tenth onFortune's Most Powerful Women list.[132]
Jeff Henley: vice chairman (since September 2014), previously chairman (2004–2014) and CFO (1991–2004).
Mark Hurd: former CEO (2014–2019),[129] previously co-president (2010–2014). In 2007, Mark Hurd was ranked No. 16 onFortune's list of the 25 Most Powerful People in Business.[133] He died in 2019.
Bob Miner: co-founder of the company and co-architect ofOracle Database. Led product design and development for Oracle Database (1977–1992). Spun off a technology group within Oracle in 1992. Oracle board member until 1993. He died in 1994.
Ed Oates: co-founder of the company. Retired from Oracle in 1996.
Umang Gupta: former vice president and general manager (1981–1984). Wrote the first business plan for the company. He died in 2022.
Bruce Scott: The first hired employee (after the co-founders; employee number 4) at Oracle (then Software Development Laboratories). Scott served as the co-author and co-architect of the Oracle database up to Version 3. He left Oracle in 1982.[2][134]
Marc Benioff: former protégé of Ellison and the youngest to be promoted to vice president at the time; left to found and leadSalesforce in 1999.[135][136]
In 2000, Oracle attracted attention from thecomputer industry and the press after hiringprivate investigators to dig through the trash of organizations involved in anantitrust trial against Microsoft.[138] The Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, staunchly defended his company's hiring of an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial, calling the snooping a "public service". The investigation reportedly included a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive Technology to look through Microsoft's trash. When asked how he would feel if others were looking into Oracle's business activities, Ellison said: "We will ship our garbage to Redmond, and they can go through it. We believe in full disclosure."[139]
In 2002, Oracle Corporation marketed many of its products using the slogan "Can't break it, can't break in", or "Unbreakable".[140] This signified a claim ofinformation security. Oracle Corporation also stressed the reliability of networked databases and network access to databases as major selling points.
However, two weeks after its introduction,David Litchfield, Alexander Kornbrust, Cesar Cerrudo and others demonstrated a whole suite of successful attacks against Oracle products.[141][142] Oracle Corporation's chief security officerMary Ann Davidson said that, rather than representing a literal claim of Oracle's products' impregnability, she saw the campaign in the context of fourteen independent security evaluations[143] that Oracle Corporation's database server had passed.
In 2004, then-United States Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft sued Oracle Corporation to prevent it from acquiring a multibillion-dollar intelligence contract. After Ashcroft's resignation from government, he founded a lobbying firm,The Ashcroft Group, which Oracle hired in 2005. With the group's help, Oracle went on to acquire the contract.[144]
Computer Sciences Corporation, as the prime contractor, reportedly spent a billion dollars developing theExpeditionary Combat Support System for theUnited States Air Force. It yielded no significant capability, because, according to an Air Force source, the prime contractor "was simply not up to the task of adapting" the Oracle software, on which the system was based, to meet the specialized performance criteria.[145]
Oracle Corporation was awarded a contract by the State of Oregon'sOregon Health Authority (OHA) to developCover Oregon, the state's healthcare exchange website, as part of the U.S.Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. When the site tried to go live on October 1, 2013, it failed, and registrations had to be taken using paper applications until the site could be fixed.
On April 25, 2014, the State of Oregon voted to discontinue Cover Oregon and instead use the federal exchange to enroll Oregon residents.[146] The cost of switching to the federal portal was estimated at $5 million, whereas fixing Cover Oregon would have required another $78 million.
Oracle presidentSafra Catz responded to Cover Oregon and the OHA in a letter claiming that the site's problems were due to OHA mismanagement, specifically that a third-partysystems integrator was not hired to manage the complex project.[147][148]
In August 2014, Oracle Corporation sued Cover Oregon for breach of contract,[149] and then later that month the state of Oregon sued Oracle Corporation, in a civil complaint for breach of contract, fraud, filing false claims and "racketeering".[150] In September 2016, the two sides reached a settlement valued at over $100 million to the state, and a six-year agreement for Oracle to continue modernizing state software and IT.[151][152][153][154]
In August 2022, aclass action lawsuit was filed against Oracle by the law firmLieff Cabraser. The lawsuit alleges that Oracle engaged in "deliberate and purposeful surveillance of the general population via their digital and online existence", specifically focusing on Oracle operating a surveillance machine which tracks in real-time and records indefinitely the personal information of hundreds of millions of people. The litigants argue that through such surveillance, the company violates theFederal Electronic Communications Privacy Act,California's state constitution, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, competition law, andCalifornia Common Law.[155][156]
The lawsuit was settled in July 2024 when Oracle paid $115 million to some of its customers and agreed to stop tracking users.[157]
Heritage Foundation database of employees for Republican administration
In 2023, Oracle was contracted by conservative think tankHeritage Foundation to construct a database of conservative employees to help staff a prospective Republican presidency in 2025, part of the Foundation'sProject 2025.[158][159]
In August 2011,The Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for paying bribes to government officials in order to win business in Africa, in contravention of theForeign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).[160]
In 2012 Oracle agreed to pay about $2 million to the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC at the time alleged that the company's Indian subsidiary structured transactions with foreign governments in a way that enabled them to hold about $2.2 million of the proceeds inside funds that could be used for unauthorized purposes and therefore was a violation of the FCPA.[161]
In September 2022, Oracle settled with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) without admitting or denying its findings, by agreeing to pay $23 million to settle the charges. The SEC announced that Oracle violated the FCPA between 2014 and 2019 when its subsidiaries in India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) created slush funds to bribe foreign officials in order to win business.[162][163]
South African National Treasury contract and corruption probe
In March 2024, South Africa'sSpecial Investigating Unit found that there were conflicts of interest, irregular processes, and non-compliance with policies and legislation, and said it would petition to blacklist Oracle in South Africa, cancel the contract and recover the money paid.[166]
In November 2024,Deno Land filed a petition with theUS Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Oracle's registered trademark for "JavaScript" because it is "a generic term that Oracle has never controlled and thus isn't eligible under the law for trademark protection", "Oracle abandoned the JavaScript trademark because it doesn't actually use the term in any of the products or services it sells", and because Oracle made false statements when Oracle applied for the trademark.[167][168][169] In February 2025, Oracle denied all three claims.[170]
Following the 2023–2025Gaza genocide by Israel, Oracle’s top executives, including Safra Catz and Larry Ellison, publicly aligned the company with Israel’s military operations. They issued statements of solidarity, paid double salaries to Israeli employees, and donated to organizations connected to Israel’s wartime response. Critics argue that these moves demonstrate corporate complicity in the suffering of Palestinian civilians and reflect a broader normalization of support for military action under the guise of “corporate values.”[171]
In January 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition ofSun Microsystems—valued at more than $7 billion—a move that transformed Oracle from solely a software company to a manufacturer of both software and hardware. The acquisition was delayed for several months by theEuropean Commission because of concerns aboutMySQL, but was unconditionally approved in the end.[172] In September 2011, U.S. State Department Embassycables were leaked to WikiLeaks. One cable revealed that the U.S. pressured theE.U. to allow Oracle to acquire Sun.[173]
The Sun acquisition was closely watched byfree software users and some companies, due to the fear that Oracle might end Sun's traditional support offree projects.[174][175][176][177] Since the acquisition, Oracle has discontinuedOpenSolaris andStarOffice, and suedGoogle over theJava patents Oracle acquired from Sun.[178][179]
On July 29, 2010, theUnited States Department of Justice (DoJ) filed suit against Oracle Corporation alleging fraud. The lawsuit argues that the government received deals inferior to those Oracle gave to its commercial clients. The DoJ added its heft to an already existing whistleblower lawsuit filed by Paul Frascella, who was once senior director of contract services at Oracle.[180] It was settled in 2011.[181]
Oracle, the plaintiff, acquired ownership of the Java computer programming language when it acquiredSun Microsystems in January 2010.[182] The Java software includes sets of pre-developed software code to allow programs and apps to accomplish common tasks in a consistent manner. The pre-developed code is organized into separate "packages" which each contain a set of "classes". Each class contains numerousmethods, which instruct a program or app to do a certain task. Software developers "became accustomed to using Java's designations at the package, class, and method level".[183]
Oracle andGoogle (the defendant) tried to negotiate an agreement for Oracle to license Java to Google, which would have allowed Google to use Java in developing programs for mobile devices using theAndroidoperating system. However, the two companies never reached an agreement. After negotiations failed, Google created its own programming platform, which was based on Java, and contained 37 copied Java packages as well as new packages developed by Google.[183]
By the end of the first jury trial (the legal dispute would eventually go on to another trial) the arguments made by Oracle's attorneys focused on a Java function called "rangeCheck":
The argument centered on a function called rangeCheck. Of all the lines of code that Oracle had tested—15 million in total—these were the only ones that were 'literally' copied. Every keystroke, a perfect duplicate. –The Verge, 10/19/17[184]
Although Google admitted to copying the packages, Judge Alsup found that none of the Java packages were covered under copyright protection, and therefore Google did not infringe.[183]
After the case was over, Oracle appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (750 F.3d 1339 (2014)).[183][185] On May 9, 2014, the appeals court partially reversed Judge Alsup's decision, finding that Java APIs are copyrightable. API stands for "application programming interface" and are how different computer programs or apps communicate with each other. However, the appeals court also left open the possibility that Google might have a "fair use" defense.[185]
The case was then returned to the U.S. District Court for another trial about Google's fair use defense.[185] Oracle sought $9 billion in damages.[186] In May 2016, the trial jury found that Google's use of Java's APIs was considered fair use.[185]
In February 2017, Oracle filed another appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.[185] This time it was asking for a new trial because the District Court "repeatedly undermined Oracle's case", which Oracle argued led the jury to make the wrong decision. According to ZDNet, "For example, it [Oracle] says the court wrongly bought Google's claim that Android was limited to smartphones while Java was for PCs, whereas Oracle contends that Java and Android both compete as platforms for smart TVs, cars, and wearables."[186]
On August 13, 2010, an internal Oracle memo leaked to the Internet cited plans for ending theOpenSolaris operating system project and community.[187] With Oracle planning to developSolaris only in a closed source fashion, OpenSolaris developers moved to theIllumos andOpenIndiana project, among others.[188]
As Oracle completed their acquisition of Sun Microsystems in February 2010, they announced that OpenSSO would no longer be their strategic product.[189] Shortly after, OpenSSO was forked toOpenAM,[189] and will continue to be developed and supported byForgeRock.
On September 6, 2010, Oracle announced that formerHewlett-Packard CEOMark Hurd was to replaceCharles Phillips, who resigned as Oracle co-president. In an official statement made by Larry Ellison, Phillips had previously expressed his desire to transition out of the company. Ellison had asked Phillips to stay on through the integration ofSun Microsystems Inc.[190] In a separate statement regarding the transition, Ellison said "Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle. There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark."[191]
On September 7, 2010, HP announced a civil lawsuit against Mark Hurd "to protect HP's trade secrets",[192] in response to Oracle hiring Hurd. On September 20, Oracle and HP published a joint press release announcing the resolution of the lawsuit on confidential terms and reaffirming commitment to long-term strategic partnership between the companies.[193]
A number ofOpenOffice.org developers formedThe Document Foundation and received backing by Google, Novell, Red Hat, and Canonical, as well as some others, but were unable to get Oracle to donate the brand OpenOffice.org, causing a fork in the development of OpenOffice.org with the foundation now developing and promotingLibreOffice. Oracle expressed no interest in sponsoring the new project and asked the OpenOffice.org developers that started the project to resign from the company due to "conflicts of interest". On November 1, 2010, 33 of the OpenOffice.org developers gave their letters of resignation.[194] On June 1, 2011, Oracle donated OpenOffice.org to theApache Software Foundation.[195]
On June 15, 2011, HP filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Santa Clara, claiming that Oracle had breached an agreement to support the Itanium microprocessor used in HP's high-end enterprise servers.[196] Oracle called the lawsuit "an abuse of the judicial process"[197] and said that had it knownSAP'sLéo Apotheker was about to be hired as HP's new CEO, any support for HP's Itanium servers would not have been implied.[198]
On August 1, 2012, a California judge said in a tentative ruling that Oracle must continue porting its software at no cost until HP discontinues its sales of Itanium-based servers.[199][200] HP was awarded $3 billion in damages against Oracle in 2016.[201] HP argued Oracle's canceling support damaged HP's Itanium server brand. Oracle had announced that it would appeal both the decision and damages, but the decision stayed.[202][203]
On April 20, 2012, the US General Services Administration banned Oracle from the most popular portal for bidding on GSA contracts for undisclosed reasons. Oracle has previously used this portal for around four hundred million dollars a year in revenue.[204] Oracle previously settled a lawsuit filed under theFalse Claims Act, which accused the company ofoverbilling the US government between 1998 and 2006. The 2011 settlement forced Oracle to pay $199.5 million to theGeneral Services Administration.[205]
On December 20, 2021, Oracle announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquireCerner Corporation (nowOracle Health andOracle Life Sciences) for approximatelyUS$28.3 billion, creating a dedicated Industry Business Unit within the company. Cerner is the largest international supplier of health information technology, such aselectronic health records (EHR),revenue cycle solutions, and biomedical device integration platforms, and has its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, US.[206] The deal closed in early July 2022 after receiving final approval from European regulators, making it Oracle's largest acquisition and one of the largest in corporate history.[207]
Oracle's purchase of Cerner is part of an effort to introduce Oracle products into the healthcare market, particularly in the United States although Oracle plans to expand Cerner's global operations.[207] It mirrors closely to expansions of other large information technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon into the healthcare sector. Cerner already used Oracle solutions for its "largest business and most important clinical system", and Oracle announced its intention to integrate autonomous solutions such as the Oracle Voice Digital Assistant into Cerner clinical solutions. Oracle additionally has shared its plans to improve the usability and user experience of Cerner solutions.[206]
While the acquisition was originally met with mixed reactions by industry and investors, some industry experts have developed a more positive perception of the purchase. Cerner won a major contract in 2017 to supply its EHR software to the US Department of Defense andVeterans Administration Hospitals, which resulted in Cerner "leaving its traditional base of hospital systems high and dry" with delays in resolving issues and implementing innovations. Oracle's acquisition allows for the larger corporation to support Cerner's operations, with the goal of "addressing basic operational issues... improving resiliency and usability" in the short-term.[208] Some opinions have expressed longer-term concern, with Oracle Health expecting a decline in US-based sales in 2024, although an increase in global sales. Additionally, clients of Cerner have reported minimal improvements to the core system and a focus by Oracle on future advancements over resolving current issues.[209]
A September 2024 announcement by Oracle listed "tens of thousands of engineering hours and millions of dollars" of investments in the core clinical operations, and the release of the highly anticipated Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant, a generative AI system that automatically creates consultation documentation and proposes orders.[210]
In March 2025, a threat actor claimed to have stolen 6 million data records from Oracle Health (formerlyCerner), affecting 140,000 patients.[211] Oracle has denied the breach despite multiple online reports and legal complaints filed.[212] In April 2025, theCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a warning to Oracle customers to secure their environments, despite no public acknowledgment of the breach by Oracle.[213]
On September 13, 2020,Bloomberg News reported that Oracle won a bidding war with other U.S.-based companies to take over social media company TikTok's operations in the United States following the company's pressure to forcibly be shut down by theTrump administration. Oracle was described as a "trusted tech partner" byTikTok, suggesting the deal may not be as structured as an outright sale.[214] On September 19, 2020, the Trump administration approved of the sale of TikTok's US operations to Oracle "[delaying] — by one week — restrictions that were originally to take effect" on September 20 as indicated by theUnited States Department of Commerce.[215]
On February 10, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, theBiden administration would be backing off from banning TikTok and shelving the sale of TikTok indefinitely, as the U.S. Commerce Department began reviewing whether or not Trump's claims about TikTok can justify the attempts to ban it.[216]On February 27, 2023, Biden changed his "indefinite" stance on TikTok as he echoed Trump's 2020 claims of disapproval. Biden said Federal agencies have thirty days to remove TikTok from all federal devices. Federal contractors must meet the same standard in ninety days. On March 8, 2024, Biden said he would sign a bipartisan bill banning TikTok in the United States if the Chinese company ByteDance didn't divest.[citation needed]
As of the 25th September 2025, TikTok was bought bySilver Lake andAbu Dhabi’s MGX. Oracle will own 45% of the app in the US, and ByteDance 35% after delays with the ban for the 4th time.[217][218]
Oracle will store data of US TikTok users on itscloud computers,[219] and it will be involved in the new TikTok spinoff's cybersecurity.[220]
Since December 2020, Oracle Corporation's world headquarters has been located in Austin, Texas. Oracle has plans to build its largest office hub, with 8,500 jobs, inNashville, Tennessee within the next few decades.
Oracle has a large office complex located on theSan Francisco Peninsula in theRedwood Shores area ofRedwood City. This complex was home to Oracle world headquarters from 1989 to 2020. It is located on the former site ofMarine World/Africa USA, which moved from Redwood Shores toVallejo in 1986. Oracle Corporation originally leased two buildings on the Oracle Parkway site, moving its finance and administration departments from the corporation's former headquarters on Davis Drive,Belmont, California. Eventually, Oracle purchased the complex and constructed four additional buildings.
The distinctive Oracle Parkway buildings, nicknamed the Emerald City,[221] served as sets for the futuristic headquarters of the fictional company "NorthAm Robotics" in theRobin Williams filmBicentennial Man (1999).[222] The campus also represented the headquarters ofCyberdyne Systems in the movieTerminator Genisys (2015).[223]
Oracle offices and former headquarters in Redwood Shores, California
300 Oracle Parkway in Redwood Shores
Oracle offices in Redwood Shores, with Oracle Plaza building in left foreground
Oracle Corporation operates in multiple markets and has acquired many companies to help it do so. In some cases these companies became the starting points for global business units (GBUs) targeting particular vertical markets., including:[224]
Communications
Construction and engineering—formerly the Primavera GBU
BMW Oracle Racing USA-71, at the German Sailing Grand Prix Kiel 2006. It was moored at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, until 2014.
On October 20, 2006, theGolden State Warriors and the Oracle Corporation announced a 10-year agreement in which the Oakland Arena would become known as theOracle Arena.[225] The agreement ended after the 2018–2019 NBA season when the Warriors relocated to theChase Center in San Francisco.[226]
Larry Ellison's sailing team competes asOracle Team USA. The team has won theAmerica's Cup twice, in 2010 (as BMW Oracle Racing)[227] and in 2013,[228] despite being penalized for cheating.[229][230]
Sean Tucker's "Challenger II" stunt biplane is sponsored by Oracle and performs frequently at air shows around the US.[231]
From the2022 Formula One season, Oracle signed a five-year deal worth $500m to become title sponsors ofRed Bull Racing, after already being a sponsor effective from the2021 season.[233] In 1994 and 1995, Oracle sponsoredBenetton. It was revealed in July 2022 thatNASCAR'sJoe Gibbs Racing team tried to sign a sponsorship with Oracle afterMars Inc. would announce they would leave JGR after the 2022 season, but the deal reportedly fell through.[234]
^Grancher, Eric (May 15, 2009)."Oracle and storage IOs, explanations and experience at CERN"(PDF).CERN-IT-Note-2009-005. Geneva: CERN. p. 4. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2010.The Oracle Exadata storage server version 1 is a solution developed by Oracle and HP in which part of the processing, normally performed by the database instance, is performed at the storage system level.
^Di Martino, Beniamino; Cretella, Giuseppina; Esposito, Antonio (2015)."4.3 Oracle PaaS".Cloud Portability and Interoperability: Issues and Current Trends. SpringerBriefs in Computer Science. Springer. p. 68.ISBN978-3-319-13701-8. RetrievedSeptember 20, 2016.The Oracle cloud platform [...] is a portfolio of products that can be used to build applications to publish as services on both private and public clouds. The platform is based on the Oracle Grid technologies, as well as on applications that include WebLogic Server, Coherence in-memory datagrid, and JRockit JVM. In terms of infrastructure, the platform is based on the Oracle IaaS offer that contains Oracle Solaris, Oracle Enterprise linux, and Oracle VM for virtualization, Sun SPARC and Storage.
^"Oracle (ORCL) Announces New Cloud Platform Additions".Street Insider. June 22, 2015. RetrievedApril 15, 2016.With more than 24 new cloud services, the Oracle Cloud Platform extends Oracle's leadership with the world's broadest and deepest portfolio of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Newly available Oracle Cloud services include, Oracle Database Cloud – Exadata, Oracle Archive Storage Cloud, Oracle Big Data Cloud, Oracle Integration Cloud, Oracle Mobile Cloud, and Oracle Process Cloud.
^"Global Customer Support Security Practices"(PDF). Oracle Corporation. April 1, 2008. p. 1. RetrievedAugust 25, 2008.Your registration on MetaLink uses a unique Customer Support Identifier (CSI) linked to your Support contract.
^"Global Customer Support Security Practices"(PDF). Oracle Corporation. April 1, 2008. p. 1. RetrievedAugust 25, 2008.GCS is a global operation, with Service Request (SR) management based on global competencies
^"Oracle Introduces Next-generation Customer Support Platform: My Oracle Support" (Press release). California: Oracle Corporation. September 22, 2008. Archived fromthe original on October 2, 2008. RetrievedSeptember 25, 2008.My Oracle Support integrates Oracle's [...] support portal, Oracle MetaLink, with its [...] configuration management platform, Oracle Software Configuration Manager, to deliver [..] support capabilities
^Prusinski, Ben; Phillips, Steve; Chung, Richard (2011).Expert Oracle GoldenGate. Apresspod Series. Apress. pp. 111–112.ISBN978-1-4302-3566-8. RetrievedJuly 24, 2012.You can verify the [...] supported [...] platforms [...] by logging into the My Oracle Support (MOS) site online athttp://support.oracle.com [...]
^Compare:Jeffries, John P. (2011).Oracle GoldenGate 12c Implementer's Guide (2 ed.). Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd (published 2015). p. 22.ISBN978-1-78398-077-2. RetrievedAugust 24, 2017.The full comprehensive list of all the certified platforms and databases is available at the My Oracle Support website: support.oracle.com (formerly Metalink).
^"My Oracle Support Help, Release 15.3".docs.oracle.com. Oracle. 2017. RetrievedAugust 24, 2017.My Oracle Support customer user accounts are managed by individuals within your organization in the role of Customer User Administrator (CUA).
^Douglas, Williams; et al. (November 2010)."Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide, 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux and UNIX"(PDF). Oracle Corporation. p. xxi. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on November 16, 2010. RetrievedNovember 22, 2010.Oracle Configuration Manager: This feature [...] was previously named Customer Configuration repository (CCR). It is an optional component for database and client installations. Oracle Configuration Manager gathers and stores details relating to the configuration of the software stored in database Oracle home directories.
^Morgenthaler, Gary (December 8, 2005)."Oral History of Gary Morgenthaler"(PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Luann Johnson. Computer History Museum. p. 18. RetrievedMay 30, 2025.
^abcd"RDBMS Workshop: Informix"(PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Luanne Johnson. Computer History Museum. June 12, 2007. RetrievedMay 30, 2025.
^Davidson, Mary Ann (February 2002)."Unbreakable: Oracle's Commitment to Security"(PDF). An Oracle White Paper. Redwood Shores, California: Oracle Corporation. p. 2. RetrievedMarch 21, 2010.Beginning in November 2001, Oracle began a marketing campaign: Unbreakable. The security portions of the campaign reference Oracle's 14 independent security evaluations [...]
^On July 3, 2007, SAP admitted that TomorrowNow employees had made "inappropriate downloads" from the Oracle support web site. However, it claims that SAP personnel and SAP customers had no access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow. SAP's CEO Henning Kagermann stated that "Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred." Additionally, SAP announced that it had "instituted changes" in TomorrowNow's operational oversightOracle Rethinks Its Dumpster-Diving Ways April 29, 2004, Lisa Vaas, eweek.com
^Swing Shift Column,San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, California) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News) (December, 2000)
^Widenius, Monty."Save MySQL!". RetrievedJanuary 31, 2010.[Signer hereby asks] competition authorities around the world to block Oracle's acquisition of Sun unless one of the structural solutions selected by [signer] below is put in place as a legally binding requirement: (select at least one; all combinations are possible) MySQL must be divested to a suitable third party that can continue to develop it under the GPL. Oracle must commit to a linking exception for applications that use MySQL with the client libraries (for all programming languages), for plugins and libmysqld. MySQL itself remains licensed under the GPL. Oracle must release all past and future versions of MySQL (until December 2012) under the Apache Software License 2.0 or similar permissive license so that developers of applications and derived versions (forks) have flexibility concerning the code.
^Stallion, Steven (August 13, 2010)."OpenSolaris is Dead". Iconoclastic Tendencies. Archived fromthe original on November 9, 2020. RetrievedSeptember 7, 2011.
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