{"id":79127,"date":"2026-10-06T07:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/oracle-gave-larry-ellison-and-his-co-ceos-nearly-1-billion-in-stock-options-by-year-end-every-single-one-was-underwater\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T07:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:26:12","slug":"oracle-gave-larry-ellison-and-his-co-ceos-nearly-1-billion-in-stock-options-by-year-end-every-single-one-was-underwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/oracle-gave-larry-ellison-and-his-co-ceos-nearly-1-billion-in-stock-options-by-year-end-every-single-one-was-underwater\/","title":{"rendered":"Oracle Gave Larry Ellison and His Co-CEOs Nearly $1 Billion in Stock Options. By Year End, Every Single One Was Underwater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Oracle\u2019s $988M in executive options had no intrinsic value by May 31, 2026.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Oracle shares fell 53% in 12 months as AI spending and $130B in debt rattled investors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Ellison and Oracle\u2019s co-CEOs need shares above $280-$308 for their 2026 options to pay off.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Oracle\u2019s latest pay story comes with a brutal twist: the company handed co-founder Larry Ellison and newly minted co-CEOs Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia stock option packages worth a combined $988 million in fiscal 2026, then watched every grant sink below water by the May 31, 2026 fiscal year end. That downside landed despite a year when Oracle\u2019s cloud business boomed and the stock logged a 38% total return. In a proxy statement published on 9\/25\/2026, Oracle said the awards \u201chad no intrinsic value\u201d at year end, underscoring how fast the math can flip when a strike price meets a stock chart that refuses to cooperate.<\/p>\n<p>One of the stranger corporate scorecards this month comes from <b>Oracle<\/b>, where a nearly billion-dollar executive pay bet wound up worth exactly nothing by the time the books closed. The detail popped out of recent coverage by <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2026\/09\/26\/oracle-larry-ellison-ceo-pay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fortune<\/a>, and it captures a familiar tech tension: rewarding leaders for a strong run, then watching the market move the other way.<\/p>\n<h2>A billion-dollar bet turns sour<\/h2>\n<p>In fiscal 2026, Oracle awarded stock option packages with a combined grant-date value of <b>$988 million<\/b> to co-founder <b>Larry Ellison<\/b> and newly promoted co-CEOs <b>Clay Magouyrk<\/b> and <b>Mike Sicilia<\/b>. The grants followed a year when Oracle\u2019s cloud business boomed and the stock delivered a 38% total return. But by the fiscal year end on May 31, 2026, every one of those options was underwater.<\/p>\n<p>Oracle\u2019s proxy statement, published September 25, 2026, put it bluntly: the options \u201chad no intrinsic value.\u201d That line, tucked inside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/0001341439\/000119312526402816\/orcl-20260925.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Form DEF 14A<\/a>, is the kind of compensation footnote that reads like a market verdict, not a pay plan.<\/p>\n<h2>Two new CEOs, and the price of optimism<\/h2>\n<p>The packages trace back to a leadership reshuffle in September 2025, when Oracle promoted Magouyrk, 39, and Sicilia, 54, to co-CEOs, succeeding Safra Catz, who stayed on as executive vice chair. Catz called the pairing \u201ca match made in heaven,\u201d a line that made sense in the moment, with cloud momentum behind them.<\/p>\n<p>Just days after the promotions, Magouyrk received an option package valued at $621.7 million and Sicilia received $248.7 million. Ellison\u2019s own option award arrived in October 2025, valued at $117.8 million when granted, with a $280 strike price. The co-CEOs\u2019 exercise price was set at $308, high enough that the stock\u2019s next year would matter a lot.<\/p>\n<h2>A brutal reset in the stock, and in sentiment<\/h2>\n<p>By June 26, 2026, Oracle shares logged their steepest weekly drop since August 2001, falling 19% amid investor worries about AI financing and the company\u2019s balance sheet. CNBC tied that slide to swelling spending and scrutiny over how quickly the math could work. The moment is preserved in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/06\/26\/oracle-stock-ends-worst-week-since-2001-as-investors-dwell-on-finances.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the week ending June 26, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On September 25, 2026, Oracle stock closed at <b>$137<\/b>, down 53% over the prior 12 months. During 2026, it swung from a 52-week high of $341.82 to a low of $114.50, which helps explain how quickly those lofty strike prices turned into dead weight.<\/p>\n<h2>The bill for building cloud and AI<\/h2>\n<p>Underneath the stock chart sat a spending surge: Oracle\u2019s capital expenditures rose 162% to nearly <b>$56 billion<\/b> in fiscal 2026. By the end of May 2026, it reported almost $24 billion in negative free cash flow and about <b>$130 billion<\/b> in debt, a combination that can make Wall Street impatient even when the product roadmap looks ambitious.<\/p>\n<p>The strain was not limited to the C-suite. Oracle reported median employee compensation of $94,740 in fiscal 2026, down from $98,899 in fiscal 2025, alongside layoffs and a broader reality that many company-wide options were underwater too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/featured\/oracle-gave-larry-ellison-and-his-co-ceos-nearly-1-billion-in-stock-options-by-year-end-every-single-one-was-underwater-49201\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Oracle\u2019s $988M in executive options had no intrinsic value by May 31, 2026. Oracle shares fell 53% in 12 months as AI spending and $130B in debt rattled investors. Ellison and Oracle\u2019s co-CEOs need shares above $280-$308 for their 2026 options to pay off. Oracle\u2019s latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":79128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}