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Oracle CEO Larry Ellison buys Hawaii's sixth-largest island

Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:10pm EDT

* No price revealed but pegged at over $500 million

* Island has resorts, golf courses, luxury housing

By Malia Mattoch

HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 20 (Reuters) - Billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison bought 98 percent of Hawaii's sixth-largest island, Lanai, the state's governor announced on Wednesday.

Ellison, ranked in 2012 as America's third-richest man, is purchasing the property from fellow billionaire David Murdock. Murdock's Castle and Cooke Inc, which owns all but 2 percent of Lanai's 141 square miles (365 square km), filed a transfer application with Hawaii's Public Utilities Commission.

Previous media reports put the price tag at between $500 million and $600 million, but the price was not revealed in Wednesday's filing.

"It is my understanding that Mr. Ellison has had a long standing interest in Lanai. His passion for nature, particularly the ocean, is well known specifically in the realm of America's Cup sailing," Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said in a statement. "We look forward to welcoming Mr. Ellison in the near future."

Once known for its pineapple fields, Lanai is now visited for its two Four Seasons resorts, golf courses and luxury housing. Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates booked every hotel room on the island for his 1994 wedding.

In March, Forbes listed Ellison, 67, as the world's sixth-wealthiest man, with a net worth of $36 billion. A yachting enthusiast, he won the America's Cup in 2010 and brought the 2013 America's Cup Finals to San Francisco.
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Comments (1)
ronnaby wrote:
I remember the days when oracle was an open source software. I still own the original platform to the software. I am not surprised by this over confident man to buy an entire island that is part of the USA. It’s is way of showing power and money. Oracle has junk software and I am absolutely surprised that many state governments have bought into this line of crap. Oracle is a nasty piece of software that collect data from multi-source users and subjects you to multi-discipline scruteny. I don’t know if I am spelling things correctly but I hope you get the point. Oracle is a bad piece of software that was originally written by free-lance programmers that gave it the foundation it has today. Your company should not use this software because it is evil and the data it collects will be used against you in one fashion or another.

Jun 23, 2012 1:06am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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