June 28, 2006

Ellison Takes Back Gift to Harvard

I'm under the weather today. Sleep has been my best friend. That's why there was no show prep for Charlie Sykes, and my first post is so late today.

Anyway, Oracle's billionaire Larry Ellison took back his gift to Harvard University, and it has to do with outgoing president Larry Summers:

An Oracle spokesman said on Tuesday that Mr Ellison’s decision to withdraw his pledge was “directly related” to the departure of Mr Summers, the controversial former US treasury secretary, whose brusque management style frequently clashed with members of the Harvard faculty.

“Larry Summers was the brainchild of this initiative. He and Larry Ellison had several dicussions about it. His last day at Harvard is this week, and his departure from Harvard is really the reason that Larry decided to reconsider the decision,” the spokesman said.

He said Mr Ellison planned to announce a donation to another organisation within “several weeks.”

Concerns about the pledge first emerged last week, after Christopher Murray, head of Harvard’s Global Health Initiative, who had been tapped to run the institute, said last week that the promised millions of dollars from Mr Ellison never materialised.

The planned Ellison Institute for World Health was to have studied ways to assess health policies around the world. Mr Ellison, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $16bn, had originally pledged the funds in a meeting with Mr Summers last year.

"Ellison Rescinds $115m Harvard Gift"