Is Larry Ellison Worth $78 Million A Year? Investor Demands A Pay Cut

Ellison is the heart and soul of Oracle. He's the cofounder, the visionary, and the longest sitting CEO of a major tech company. His pay reflects that.

Even so, by nearly every measure imaginable, his annual compensation is massive, especially considering that Oracle's share price has languished below $40 since the Internet bubble crashed way back in 2000.

In 2013, Ellison was paid $78 million in cash and stock, mostly stock, compared to an industry average of $29 million, according to an investment group that wants to draw attention to Ellison's pay. In 2012, it was $96 million, according to Oracle's SEC disclosures, compared to an average of $43 million. And in 2011, it was $76 million, compared to $22 million.

Now, activist investment group CtW Investments, which owns 6 million shares of Oracle, is calling for an end to it.

"The board should tie his compensation to some kind of revenue target or strategic inititiave, not just throw options at him in such a huge amounts," Michael Price Jones, CtW's senior governance analyst told Business Insider.

CtW also wants lower pay for Oracle's five other top execs, too. In 2012, for instance, Oracle's top five were paid $253 million, compared to an average of $90 million at other tech companies.

If they don't, it wants shareholders to vote them off, CtW argues in a letter to shareholders.

It's a long shot. For the most part, shareholder activist protests like this one go no where.

CtW argues that it's been on a winning streak lately. It was among the investors who successfully pushed board members to resign at HP and JP Morgan.

However, both of those companies had made some huge misteps. Oracle is facing its challenges to grow, but it's still a hugely profitable company with a stranglehold on the enterprise database market.

We reached out to Oracle for comment but did not immediately hear back. We'll update this post when we do.