Here's how insanely competitive Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison really is

AP Photo/Dean Purcell

Larry Ellison, Oracle's billionaire cofounder and current CTO, is famous for his brash personality.

He's shown time and time again that he's willing to go to great lengths to win, both in business and in his extracurricular activities. 

In honor of The America's Cup — one of Ellison's favorite hobbies, which begins Saturday in New York City — we've rounded up the stories that best show how competitive Ellison really is. 

Ellison wants to be dominant in everything he does. On Oracle's competing with Microsoft to be the No. 1 software company, Ellison told 60 Minutes in 2004, "We're in second place. We're trying to catch them. They're not making it easy ... They have a monopoly. We don't. Darn it."

REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Source: 60 Minutes

 

Ellison obsessed over beating Microsoft's Bill Gates for years. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold told Vanity Fair in 1997: "I mean, the guy’s got six billion bucks. You'd think he wouldn’t be so dramatically obsessed that one guy in the Northwest is more successful. [With Larry] it’s just a mania."

AP/Mark J. Terril

Source: Vanity Fair

He led huge changes in the America's Cup sailing competition, moving away from standard catamarans to expensive, futuristic AC72s. The boats are 13 stories tall and reach speeds of up to 50 mph.

Robert Johnson for Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

 

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