Ellison abandons an Oracle sale plan that lost $1.25 billion of value before he used it
Larry Ellison cancelled a 50 million share trading plan one day after a filing revealed it, having sold nothing under it, and Oracle did not give a reason. The plan was written in June at a much higher price.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Oracle said on Saturday that Larry Ellison would not sell any stock under a trading plan disclosed the day before, which cleared him to sell up to 50 million shares by the end of October.
- Oracle said no stock was sold under the plan and that Ellison has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock, and the company did not give a reason for the reversal.
- Oracle said on Friday it had set aside another $700 million for severance over the next year, following $2.1 billion spent on severance in the last fiscal year, when tens of thousands of jobs went.
Why it matters
- Who's exposed exposure Lenders holding the 346 million pledged shares watched that collateral go from about $60.6 billion at the plan's implied June price to about $51.9 billion at Friday's close.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Cryptopolitan has Oracle down more than 50% since the $300 billion OpenAI announcement while CNBC has it down roughly 23% this year, so how bad the drawdown looks depends on which window is used.
- Who has to decide decision Oracle now has to sell its $40 billion raise and explain its margin compression without insider supply as a distraction, and Crypto Briefing says the cancellation fixes neither.
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Divide the $8.75 billion that Crypto Briefing puts on those 50 million shares at adoption by the share count and the plan was written against a price of about $175 [8][21]. Oracle closed Friday at $150, roughly 17% below that [4][22]. The block shrank by about $1.25 billion between June 22 and the filing that disclosed it, and Ellison sold none of it [7][23][2].
Cancelling a plan that never executed costs nothing in cash. What he gave up is a four-month window of pre-scheduled liquidity, June 22 to October 24, worth up to $8.75 billion at the price he wrote it at [7][8]. Crypto Briefing calls it one of the fastest reversals of an insider trading arrangement in recent memory [6].
The position that moves with the price is the pledge. Oracle's proxy statement, as of September 2025, shows 346 million shares posted as security for his personal borrowings [9]. At $150 that collateral is worth about $51.9 billion; at the $175 implied by the June valuation it was about $60.6 billion, a decline of roughly $8.7 billion, close to the size of the plan he wrote and then killed [24][25][26].
Fifty million shares is about 1.65% of Oracle outstanding, which implies roughly 3.03 billion shares in total and puts his 40% at about 1.21 billion [19][5][28][29]. The plan covered about 4% of his own holding [29]. Crypto Briefing reports he had never sold more than 25,000 shares in a single instance, so the June plan was about 2,000 times his largest previous sale [34][35].
Crypto Briefing reports that people close to him have suggested he views Oracle's shares as undervalued [31]. The person familiar with his views declined to say whether he intends to buy more Oracle stock [32].
Liquidity is the other explanation. In December he agreed to personally support $40 billion of equity financing for his son David's hostile offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Skydance has agreed to pause that deal until as late as next June while 12 US states try to stop it on antitrust grounds [14][15]. A commitment that may not be called until June does not need a sale plan that expired in October [7][15].
Oracle's own funding is unchanged by any of this. The company plans to raise $40 billion this fiscal year with $45 billion to $50 billion more anticipated in 2026, is absorbing restructuring costs estimated at $2.8 billion, and on Friday set aside another $700 million for severance after $2.1 billion in the last fiscal year [33][12][13]. Those two severance figures add to the $2.8 billion [27]. On Mad Money on September 11, Jim Cramer said: "We're talking roughly $332 billion worth of contracted business. Two years ago that backlog was just 99 billion. The scale of the opportunity here has changed dramatically" [20]. The backlog is 3.35 times its level two years earlier [30].
In my view the cancellation was cheap: nothing was sold, so nothing was given up in cash, and it withdraws a supply signal while Oracle asks the market for $40 billion [2][33]. The expensive number in his position is the 346 million pledged shares, down about $8.7 billion in collateral value on the same move [9][26]. If the June plan was ordinary diversification, then its cancellation is only the cost of disclosure and says nothing about what he thinks the stock is worth.
What to watch
- A new 10b5-1 plan for Ellison in a later Oracle filing would reopen the supply question this cancellation closed.
- A disclosed open-market purchase by Ellison would turn the undervaluation talk into a priced commitment.
- Whether the Warner Bros. Discovery pause ends by June and the $40 billion of equity support is actually called.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives55
- Confidence60
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers- Builder
- Builder 8%
- Operator
- Operator 25%
- Investor
- Investor 67%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Oracle said Saturday that co-founder Larry Ellison would not sell any stock under the arrangement; the company had disclosed a day earlier that he had been cleared to sell up to 50 million shares by the end of October.
- [2]
Oracle said: "No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock."
- [3]
Oracle did not give a reason for the reversal.
- [4]
Oracle closed Friday at $150 a share, making the full amount covered by the plan worth about $7.5 billion.
- [5]
Ellison owns 40% of Oracle and is its largest single shareholder.
- [6]
The cancellation came one day after the plan's existence became public knowledge, making it one of the fastest reversals of an insider trading arrangement in recent memory.
- [7]
Ellison set up the Rule 10b5-1 trading plan on June 22, 2026, with an expiration date of October 24, 2026.
- [8]
At the time of adoption, those 50 million shares were valued at closer to $8.75 billion, so the subsequent dip in Oracle's stock price had already trimmed the plan's headline number.
- [9]
According to Oracle's most recent proxy statement, as of September 2025 Ellison had pledged 346 million Oracle shares as security for his personal borrowings.
- [10]
Oracle shares are trading more than 50% below the level observed after the company announced its $300 billion OpenAI partnership in September.
- [11]
As part of the AI pivot Oracle has amassed a hefty debt load and the stock has dropped roughly 23% this year.
- [12]
Oracle is absorbing restructuring costs estimated at $2.8 billion stemming from job cuts and operational reorganization, and gross margins have faced compression despite strong backlog growth.
- [13]
On Friday Oracle said it had set aside another $700 million for severance over the next year, following $2.1 billion spent on severance in the last fiscal year, when tens of thousands of workers were cut.
- [14]
In December Ellison agreed to personally support $40 billion in equity financing for his son David Ellison's hostile offer for Warner Bros. Discovery.
- [15]
Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, has agreed to pause the proposed Warner Bros. Discovery deal until as late as next June while 12 US states try to stop it on antitrust grounds.
- [16]
A Rule 10b5-1 plan is the arrangement corporate insiders use to sell stock on a pre-scheduled basis without running afoul of insider trading rules, and it executes regardless of what the insider knows later.
- [17]
Oracle announced better revenue performance in its data center division on Thursday, and the shares still declined as investors analysed margins that have narrowed because of its AI infrastructure investment.
- [18]
Removing the overhang does not fix Oracle's margin compression or make its $40 billion fundraising plan any easier, but it removes one clear negative signal.
- [19]
The 50 million shares represent roughly 1.65% of Oracle's total outstanding shares.
- [20]
Jim Cramer said on the September 11, 2026 episode of Mad Money: "We're talking roughly $332 billion worth of contracted business. Two years ago that backlog was just 99 billion. The scale of the opportunity here has changed dramatically."
- [21]
The plan's $8.75 billion value at adoption across 50 million shares implies a share price of about $175.
- [22]
Friday's $150 close is about 17% below the roughly $175 implied by the plan's value at adoption.
- [23]
The plan's value fell about $1.25 billion between adoption and disclosure.
- [24]
The 346 million pledged shares are worth about $51.9 billion at Friday's close of $150.
- [25]
The 346 million pledged shares were worth about $60.6 billion at the roughly $175 implied by the plan's value at adoption.
- [26]
The collateral value of the pledged shares fell about $8.7 billion between the implied June price and Friday's close.
- [27]
The $2.1 billion of severance spent last fiscal year plus the $700 million newly set aside equal the $2.8 billion restructuring estimate.
- [28]
50 million shares equalling 1.65% of the total implies roughly 3.03 billion Oracle shares outstanding.
- [29]
Ellison's 40% stake is about 1.21 billion shares, so the 50 million share plan covered about 4% of his holding.
- [30]
A $332 billion backlog is 3.35 times the $99 billion of two years earlier.
- [31]
People close to Ellison have suggested he views Oracle's shares as undervalued.
- [32]
The source familiar with Ellison's views declined to disclose whether he intends to make additional purchases of Oracle shares in the coming months.
- [33]
Oracle has outlined plans to raise $40 billion in its current fiscal year to fund growth initiatives, with an additional $45 billion to $50 billion anticipated in 2026.
- [34]
Historically Ellison has not exceeded sales of 25,000 shares in a single instance, which made the 50 million share trading plan noteworthy among investors.
- [35]
The 50 million share plan was about 2,000 times Ellison's largest previous single sale of 25,000 shares.
Sources
3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cnbc.comLarry Ellison nixes plan to offload up to $7.5 billion worth of Oracle stock
1 article · September 12, 2026
- cryptobriefing.comLarry Ellison cancels plan to sell $7.5 billion in Oracle stock
1 article · September 12, 2026
- cryptopolitan.comLarry Ellison scraps $7.5 billion Oracle stock sale one day after it became public
1 article · September 12, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- AI Infrastructure Spending
- Insider trading plans