Oracle's Ellison steps down as chief executive

Co-founder to become chief technology officer and executive chairman

Larry Ellison has stepped down as chief executive of Oracle.

The co-founder of the firm will be replaced by current president Mark Hurd and co-president and chief financial officer Safra Catz, who will both be named CEO of the company and not co-CEOs. The changes are effective immediately.

Hurd will oversee sales, service and business units and Catz will be responsible for manufacturing, legal and finance functions.

Ellison, meanwhile, will take up the positions of executive chairman and chief technology officer and will have software and hardware engineering reporting to him.

Oracle said Ellison has made it "very clear" that he wants to keep working full time and "focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy".

Of working alongside the two new chief executives, Ellison said: "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."

The announcement comes just four months after Ellison's pay packet was brought into question by a group of US trade bodies.

In May the Financial Times quoted the American Federation of Congress and Labour Organisations' chief research analyst, Vineeta Anand, as describing Oracle as "recalcitrant" on corporate governance and as having a chief executive who acts "not like a CEO but like a king."