Billionaire software executive Lawrence Ellison, whose Oracle Corp has had six straight quarters of falling sales, quit as an Apple Computer Inc director after five years that included bringing back Steve Jobs to lead a turnaround.
"He just didn't have time to come to the board meetings," Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer, said in an e-mail. Company filings show Ellison missed at least a quarter of Apple's meetings every year he was on the board and sat on no committees.
Ellison is trying to reverse Oracle's sales slump, which contributed to an 83 percent plunge in the business-software maker's shares since a September 2000 peak. The multimillion-dollar contracts that fueled growth in the 1990s have evaporated, Ellison has said, so he is guiding salespeople to go after smaller deals to make revenue more consistent.
"Larry drives a lot more decision-making than the average CEO does," said Tony Ursillo, an analyst at Loomis Sayles & Co, which invests US$60 billion and owns Oracle shares. "Oracle is struggling through a difficult period, he's got the big race coming up, and he needs to streamline a little bit."
The CEO plans to sail in the Louis Vuitton Cup, which starts Oct. 1 in Auckland, New Zealand. The winner gets to compete against Team New Zealand for America's Cup in February and March.
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