(2018-0016-F) Larry Ellison - CEO at Oracle

The materials in 2018-0016-F are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related material. Larry Ellison, a native of Chicago, got his start in 1977 when he co-founded Software Development Laboratories. For a period of two years Ellison and his partners worked on a project called “Oracle”. From there they formed Relational Software Inc. in 1979; three years later, in 1982, the company changed its name and became Oracle Systems Corporation. White House Staff and Office files responsive to this FOIA request derive from the records of the Chief of Staff, Cabinet Affairs, and Public Liaison. In the files of the Chief of Staff there is correspondence, testimony, memoranda, newspaper articles, and lists that all have to do with the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) as it related to the sale of computer software overseas. In 1997, the Clinton Administration passed a Taxpayers Relief Act which included a clarification on the FSC. Ellison wrote a letter to John Podesta in which he congratulated him on his efforts to get the legislation through Congress. He declared, “With the clarification of the Foreign Sales Corporation benefits for software, U.S. software companies will be afforded the same tax treatment as is available to all other U.S. exporters. These benefits will enable U.S. software companies to better compete abroad. . .” Included in the remaining material is a lengthy letter from Ellison to President Clinton pointing out that Treasury seemed determined to continue the present discriminatory policy despite the opposition of the Department of Commerce and over members of Congress. He ended by saying, “Treasury seems determined to single out software for discriminating treatment. There is no rational basis for this action. There is no logical defense of it. It is bad policy and bad politics.” Cabinet Affairs contains memoranda, fax cover sheets, press releases, newspaper articles, schedules, and reports concerning the efforts of Ellison and Oracle to get a videotaped message from President Clinton in support of the company’s program to get network computers into the hands of children in low income schools. Specifically, Ellison was scheduled to inaugurate Oracle’s Promise school sites at three locations in the Los Angeles area on September 20, 1997. Oracle even provided a script for the occasion. In the opening paragraph, the President made the following remarks: “Larry, it is my pleasure to join with so many Americans—in Los Angeles and throughout the country—in thanking you and Oracle Corporation for your $100 million commitment to provide network computers in every classroom in every public school in the nation.” Many of the memoranda and press releases originated with Oracle as he promoted his pledge of putting network computers into schools all over the United States. Public Liaison includes a report entitled “California Alliance for Software Exports (CASE)” with a further breakdown under the heading of “Briefing Materials—Foreign Sales Corporations.” Within this document different types of records can be found: press releases, summaries, correspondence, and drafts. The highlight of the package is a letter from 150 California technology executives to President Clinton. They call for equal treatment under the present law. Their overriding concern was for the Treasury Department to modify the 1987 temporary rules “to include software exports and end this discrimination so that U.S. software companies can continue to create high skill, wage jobs for California.”