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Larry Ellison: Winning the database wars

23 Feb 2026 · 46 min

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Larry Ellison’s business mantra is simple: “It is not sufficient that I succeed — everyone else must fail.” From humble beginnings as an adopted child in Chicago to becoming one of the richest men in history, BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng trace the relentless ascent of one of Silicon Valley’s most combative and controversial figures. After recognising the commercial potential of databases, Larry Ellison founded Oracle in the 1970s and spent the next two decades driving an aggressive sales culture that fuelled meteoric growth — and nearly sank the company in an…

Podcast

Good Bad Billionaire

BBC World Service · Business · English

How did the richest people on the planet make their billions? New episodes include: Sir Paul McCartney, Roger Federer, MrBeast, Luana Lopes Lara, Beyoncé, Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Spielberg. Make up your minds whether you think they are good, bad or just another billionaire. In each episode,…

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