Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Purchases Lanai

Recently, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison purchased roughly 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai for an undisclosed amount. The island was previously owned by billionaire David Murdock, who is ranked the 130th richest person in the Forbes 400. Although Ellison hasn’t spent a lot of time on the island after acquiring it, he has made a couple notable improvements that have pleased the residents in a positive manner. To learn more about this recent purchase by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and what he intends on doing with it, keep reading and we’ll give you the latest scoop.

As stated above, Ellison hasn’t made any significant changes to the island after purchasing it. He did, however, reopen Lanai’s only community pool for the residents to use. In addition to their pristine beaches, residents can now enjoy a luxury community pool free of charge. This of course came as welcomed news to those living on the island, as conditions were reportedly worse when David Murdock owned the land. Not only did he close the community pool, but he made life more difficult in general with other restrictions. In any case, most of the island’s residents seem to be pleased with the new owner.

You might be surprised to hear that Lanai has roughly 3,200 residents living on the 141-square mile island. Lanai is the sixth largest Hawaiian island and sits to the west of the mainland. In addition to reopening the community pool, Ellison has also invested money for improving and renovating the two main resorts on the island. Tourism is a big part of Lanai’s income, and the island must focus on this if they want to thrive in these troubling economic times. With that said, unemployment on the island is less than 2%, which is considerably less than the national average. There are schools, resorts, shops, restaurants and dozens of other job opportunities for residents to choose from on the island.

A lot of people are wondering just what exactly Ellison plans to do with his new Hawaiian island. After all, he’s not currently living there, so why did he purchase it? Well, Ellison recently made an announcement to the press stating his desire to turn Lanai into a community living off of clean, renewable energy through the use of solar panels, wind turbines, etc. Ellison hasn’t gone forward with these plans, but it’s likely the island will try to shift towards clean energy in the following years.