How Indian Wells tennis chief Larry Ellison became one of the world’s richest people
He is a huge presence sitting in the front row every day at the Indian Wells Masters tournament in California, yet how did billionaire Larry Ellison make his fortune?
Tennis lover Ellison has been the both the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and BNP Paribas Open in 2009, as he lives out his dream of playing a central role in the sport he enjoys more than any other.
Ellison’s vast wealth ensures he can give players fortunate enough to play in the Indian Wells event a special experience, so it is no surprise that this tournament always rates highly when players are asked to rate their favourite tournament.
WHO IS LARRY ELLISON?
Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, in New York City to Florence Spellman, but he was raised by his auntie and didn’t meet his biological mother again until he was 48.
Ellison began working for Ampex Corporation during the 1970s and his projects included a database for the CIA, which he named “Oracle”.
Ellison was inspired by a paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database systems called “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks” and in 1977, he founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with two partners and an investment of $2,000; $1,200 of the money was his.
That company was to become the Oracle Corporation.
Oracle has grown through internal development and acquisitions and is now one of the largest software companies in the world, with over 130,000 employees and operations in more than 175 countries.
HOW MUCH IS ELLISON WORTH?
The latest Forbes rich list suggests Ellison is worth a staggering $139.7billion.
That put him in fifth place in the list of the world’s richest people behind Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon guru Jeff Bezos, Tesler mastermind Elon Musk and the world’s richest group, Bernard Arnault. He is believed to be worth $227.6billion thanks to his investment in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR – Tommy Haas
Former world No 2 Tommy Haas is Tournament Director at Indian Wells and he believes Ellison’s investment has taken the tournament up several levels.
“It was tough times about 12, 13 years ago for this spectacular event,” Haas told The Boardroom.
“This event used to be played at the Park Hyatt up until 2000, and then investors came together and bought this land where we are now and they built this incredible 16,000-seat stadium.
“Once the crash happened in ’08, this tournament was struggling a little bit and there were rumors going around that it was going to be bought and it might move to China. Luckily, the tennis world comes together and people talk, and one person might know another and former players mention this to Larry Ellison.
“They say, ‘Look, I know that you’re a tennis fan, this tournament out in the desert is spectacular, and it would be great for American tennis as well not to lose this event to China.’
“Larry came down, took a look, as a tennis fan. He said: ‘Look, this is something that I’m passionate about,’ and he took over from there. Ever since, any idea that comes to mind has been possible.
“Building another stadium — Stadium 2 — which brings in a little bit of a different type of atmosphere. You can have a great meal with your friends while overlooking the stadium and still watching tennis, which really hasn’t been done with that type of class.
It’s almost like a Disney World for tennis freaks in many ways.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAY
Novak Djokovic – “It’s probably the favourite Masters tournament of so many players including myself. I can’t wait to come and perform once again in front of some of the best tennis fans that we have on the tour.”
Rafael Nadal – “It’s unbelievable, everything about what’s happening here the last couple of years, the way that the tournament improves, how big is, all the facilities for the crowd, for the players. Just can say thanks to all the organizations, and everybody who makes is possible to create an event like this. Especially to Larry Ellison. It’s great to have him on our tour supporting our sport. It’s amazing all the things that are happening here. I think the crowd is one of the highest crowds in the world.”
