The Fight Between Larry and Larry
Posted on June 27th, 2006 in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
The San Jose Mercury News reports that Larry Ellison is giving a $100 million gift to the Ellison Medical Foundation to sponsor research on aging and aging-related diseases.
Though the paper says the gift is unrelated to the $115 million Ellison allegedly promised but never paid to Harvard, it’s hard to imagine that the Oracle chief executive, reported by the Wall Street Journal to be laboring under a cash crunch, is likely to make two $100 million gifts.
A source close to Ellison said Monday that Summer’s shaky tenure and ultimate departure has adversely affected Ellison’s decision to give the [Harvard] donation.
The Mercury News adds that the money will count toward Ellison’s settlement with the federal government in an insider trading case….
From this and the other published stories on the Ellison gift, it’s impossible to tell what really happened here. Was Ellison a Summers supporter who withdrew the gift in protest of Summers’ ouster? Or was he just reluctant to give the money to a placeâand a presidentâso plagued by controversy? Or did his decision not to pay the money have nothing to do with Summers, and he’s just using that as an excuse?
One wonders if the flurry of news stories coming out of Harvard can’t now be seen as preemptive spinâSummers making it look as if Ellison was reneging because he’s not reliable, rather than the more embarrassing spectacle of Ellison deciding that he didn’t want to give Summers the money.
As I say, impossible to tell from the published facts….
10 Responses
6/27/2006 10:17 am
Meanwhile, Warren Buffet, who makes Larry Ellison look like the classless clown he is, is giving “billions and billions” (to quote my favorite TV scientist) to the Gates Foundation to fight global disease. Larry Ellison’s yacht cost enough to fund the Harvard gift.
6/27/2006 10:12 pm
Toast to Larry!
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
(thanks, Walt)
6/27/2006 11:54 pm
A contest I declare, to take care of this horrible poem, and as a reality check. Here’s one:
No Captain! No captain! nor dreadful tyrant now;
The ship will weather all the storms you put before our bow;
July 1’s near, the coast looks clear, the people all exulting,
While Larry looks to Goldman Sachs for lucrative investing:
But O start! start! start!
O all “Crimson”-mouthing lips,
To stand for no more Captains’ lies,
spin, or ego-trips
6/28/2006 12:22 am
I bet Harvard didn’t want to spend the money to research aging. So Ellison withdrew the gift.
6/28/2006 12:30 am
How about putting that into a Whitmanesque stanza, Marci.
6/28/2006 1:50 am
When you think about what Gates and now Buffet are doing with malaria/AIDS, etc. the whole Harvard/Summers/Ellison-court-ordered-charity-global health thing contrasts on the level of ethics, efficacy and competence.
6/28/2006 2:07 am
How about doing that up in the style of Whitman, as we hope Marci will do with hers?
6/28/2006 6:58 am
How about starting your own Whitman blog to post your silly verses and staying off of this one?
6/28/2006 10:55 am
To poster above: Heaven forbid we have some fun with this self-important blog and with self-important ninnies like yourself. You cannot be serious and anonymous at the same time, even if-as is possible in your case-using your real identity would actually lessen your credibility. You post your meaningless clap-trap, and I will mine.
6/28/2006 11:27 am
Right on, sister!