Email Exchange with a Financial Journalist

“Thank you for your kind response... to paraphrase Edmund Burke, evil prospers when we stand by and do nothing. Not to belabor the point, but I fell off my chair this week when Larry Ellison was quoted saying that he doesn't like to sell his Oracle stock (USA Today article).

For the record, during the period April 19, 2004, to January 30, 2005, Larry in 93 transactions sold ORCL stock, realizing approximately $1.1 billion. His trusts and foundations realized another $685 million through the sale of ORCL stock during the same period. If it were not for stock options, CEOs would not be able to extract such wealth from their companies and then publicly boast that they don't like selling stock. American workers unwittingly purchased a big chunk of that stock through their 401(k) plans (indexing), hoping to retire wealthy. In buying ORCL stock, they were merely paying his wages - some wage! You can't retire wealthy yourself, with this kind of investing. You are merely transferring your hard-earned wages to someone who has taken advantage of the system the legislators have dropped in his lap. Shame on USA Today for not checking the facts.

Albert Meyer

Followed up by:

“I beg your pardon. In the previous e-mail, I reported Larry Ellison's stock sales going back to April 19, 2004. Had I gone back to March 1, 2004, I could have added another 28 transactions realizing another $330 million. During the same period, his trust/foundation realized another $430 million. All for a grand total of approximately $2.5 billion.