Editing Larry Ellison (section)

=== 1977–1994 ===
During the 1970s, after a brief stint at [[Amdahl Corporation]], Ellison began working for [[Ampex Corporation]]. His first project included a database for the [[CIA]], code-named "Oracle".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hartmans |first=Avery |title=The life and career of Oracle's Larry Ellison, who went from college drop-out to jet-setting playboy and 7th-richest person in the world |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-of-oracle-founder-larry-ellison-2017-1 |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418233555/https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-of-oracle-founder-larry-ellison-2017-1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Schofield |first1=Jack |last2=Brockes |first2=Emma |date=28 April 2000 |title=Welcome to Larryland |url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,215072,00.html |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> Ellison was inspired by a paper written by [[Edgar F. Codd]] on [[relational database management system|relational database systems]] called "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Codd |first=E. F. |title=A relational model of data for large shared data banks |journal=[[Communications of the ACM]] |date=June 1970 |volume=13 |issue=6 |pages=377–387 |doi=10.1145/362384.362685 |s2cid=207549016 |doi-access= free}}</ref> In 1977, he founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with two partners and an investment of $2,000; $1,200 of the money was his.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-25 |title=The Rise (and Rise) of Larry Ellison |work=Maxim |url=https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/larry-ellison-profile-2015-11/ |access-date=2024-02-01 |language=en-US |archive-date=February 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240201231020/https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/larry-ellison-profile-2015-11/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1979, the company renamed itself Relational Software, Inc. (RSI). Ellison had heard about the [[IBM System R]] database, also based on Codd's theories, and wanted Oracle to achieve compatibility with it, but IBM made this impossible by refusing to share System R's error codes.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2021-07-06 |title=How Oracle Got Started |url=https://financhill.com/blog/investing/how-oracle-got-started |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Financhill |language=en-US}}</ref> The initial release of the [[Oracle Database]] in 1979 was called Oracle version 2; there was no Oracle version 1.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cs-exhibitions.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php?id=403 |title=Oracle V2 |publisher=Cs-exhibitions.uni-klu.ac.at |date= |accessdate=2022-02-27 |archive-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930122821/http://cs-exhibitions.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php?id=403 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1983, the company officially became Oracle Systems Corporation after its flagship product. In 1990, Oracle laid off 10% of its workforce (about 400 people) because it was losing money.<ref>{{cite web |title=Larry J. Ellison Biography and Interview |website=achievement.org |publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]] |url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/#interview|access-date=April 12, 2019|archive-date=February 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223071616/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/#interview|url-status=live}}</ref> This crisis, which almost resulted in the company's bankruptcy, 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. This became a problem when the future sales subsequently failed to materialize. Oracle eventually had to restate its earnings twice, and had to settle [[class-action]] lawsuits arising from its having overstated its earnings. Ellison would later say that Oracle had made "an incredible business mistake".<ref>{{cite web |last=Gilbert |first=Alorie |title=Oracle cuts rewards for last-minute deals |url=https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/oracle-cuts-rewards-for-last-minute-deals/ |website=[[CNET]] |access-date= December 31, 2016 |date=June 20, 2002 |df=mdy-all |archive-date= December 31, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161231170721/https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/oracle-cuts-rewards-for-last-minute-deals/ |url-status= live}}</ref>

Although IBM dominated the mainframe relational database market with its [[IBM DB2|DB2]] and [[IBM SQL/DS|SQL/DS]] database products, it delayed entering the market for a relational database on [[Unix]] and [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] operating systems. This left the door open for [[Sybase]], Oracle, [[Ingres (database)|Ingres]], [[Informix Corporation|Informix]], and eventually [[Microsoft]] to dominate mid-range systems and microcomputers. Around this time, Oracle fell behind Sybase. From 1990 to 1993, Sybase was the fastest-growing database company and the database industry's darling vendor, but soon it fell victim to [[merger mania]]. Sybase's 1996 merger with Powersoft resulted in a loss of focus on its core database technology. In 1993, Sybase sold the rights to its database software running under the Windows operating system to Microsoft Corporation, which now markets it under the name "SQL Server".

In his early years at Oracle, Ellison was named an Award Recipient in the High Technology Category for the [[Ernst and Young]] Entrepreneur of the Year Program.<ref>{{cite news |first=Drake |last=Martinet |url=http://allthingsd.com/20110627/larry-ellison-has-one-and-now-11-more-entrepreneurs-do-too/ |title=Larry Ellison Has One, and Now 11 More Entrepreneurs Do, Too |publisher=[[All Things Digital]] |date=June 27, 2011 |access-date= April 13, 2015 |archive-date= July 3, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110703144153/http://allthingsd.com/20110627/larry-ellison-has-one-and-now-11-more-entrepreneurs-do-too/ |url-status= live}}</ref>