Larry Ellison steps down from top job at Oracle

Larry Ellison, co-founder of software giant Oracle (ORCL), is stepping down from the chief executive role, the company said Thursday. He will become the chief technology officer and the executive chairman of the board of directors.

The CEO job will be shared by Oracle executives Mark Hurd and Safra Catz. Hurd will oversee, sales, service and lines of business tied to specific industries. Catz will handle all manufacturing, finance, and legal responsibilities.

Ellison, 70, will continue to manage the software and hardware engineering functions at the company.

"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," said Larry Ellison in a statement issued by the company. "All the other reporting relationships will remain unchanged. The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future. Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."

Oracle's board director Michael Boskin said it was Ellison's choice to assume the CTO role. "Larry has made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy," Boskin said in a statement. He called the trio of executives, "the best senior executive team in the industry."

Ellison is a two-time college drop-out who founded Oracle in 1977, growing it into a business software giant and becoming one of the richest people in the world. An avid sailor, Forbes ranks Ellison 5th richest man in the world with a net worth of more than $51 billion. Ellison has been a controversial figure for his high pay as CEO as well as for his penchant for yacht racing. His total compensation in 2013 was $78.4 million, according to compensation consultant Equilar.

Hurd was the former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. He stepped down in 2010 after a corporate scandal in which the company found he falsified expense reports, allegedly to hide a relationship with a contractor.