Oracle chief Larry Ellison under pressure over $76m pay

Oracle chief Larry Ellison is likely to come under pressure from investors at the company's annual meeting at the end of October over what is deemed as excessive levels of pay.

Although Ellison turned down a $1.2 million bonus because Oracle missed growth targets, the CEO still took home a compensation package worth $76.9 million in a 12-month period ending in May, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Prominent shareholders including the Vanguard Group and BlackRock are said to have expressed concerns about the high-pay for Oracle executives despite its fluctuating performance. After consecutive flat quarters, Oracle saw profit rise by 8 per cent to $2.19 billion in the latest three month period.

The billionaire chief executive was already under fire earlier this week when he skipped his keynote address at the annual Oracle World conference so he could watch his team perform a thrilling comeback in the America's Cup boat race.

Bruce Chizen, chairman of the Oracle board's compensation committee, CtW Investment Group is reported to have sent a letter the same day as Ellison stood up 60,000 attendees at Oracle World.

In the letter, Chizen said the CtW would vote against Oracle's compensation practices. The CtW also wants the tech giant to put limits on executive pay and bring in an independent director to oversee compensation packages.

A failure to do so could result in CtW moving to try and unseat directors, something it has successfully forced at HP after the disastrous acquisition of UK-based software firm Autonomy.