What Larry Ellison has in common with Mr. Burns

There's a classic scene in one episode of The Simpson's when nuclear power-plant owner and gazillionaire C. Montgomery Burns gravely informs his everpresent assistant Waylon Smithers of bad financial news: "It's been a very lean year for us," Mr. Burns says, knowing the exact opposite to be true.
Then, they both yell "Money fight!" and begin chucking piles of cash at the other, giddy as can be.

It wouldn't surprise me if Larry Ellison was having "money fights" with his assistant these days.

Mr. Ellison, who recently asked for a 38 percent pay increase and got it (despite objections from some Oracle shareholders), is now the third-richest man in America, and is poised to take home a bonus of US$13.6 million for Oracle's upcoming fiscal year, which excludes his annual salary (around $1 million), options granted by Oracle's compensation committee, and whatever he decides to exercise in stock options for the year. (For the record, Ellison exercised $544 million in stock options last year, which is not included in his annual compensation figures.)

But just like Mr. Burns' wealth, there can be some public disagreement on just how much Mr. Ellison actually rakes in a given year and whether he merits that much compensation.

For Oracle's just completed 2008 fiscal year, an estimate by consulting firm Proxy Governance put Mr. Ellison's pay package at $83 million. Other estimates put it at $84.6 million. In another instance, Bloomberg estimated that the value of Oracle's options granted to Mr. Ellison was worth $58.8 million, whereas Oracle estimated that number at $71.4 million.

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