According to a statement by Hawai’i Governor Neil Abercrombie, Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) CEO (and the third richest man in the US) Larry Ellison has
agreed to purchase 98% of the island of Lanai, the sixth-largest of the
Hawaiian islands; the State of Hawai’i will retain ownership of the
other 2%.
Lanai is no stranger to private ownership: it was originally acquired
piecemeal through the 1870s by Walter Gibson, to be used first as a
Mormon colony and then as ranching land, and subsequently purchased by
the Dole Food Company (at that point still the Hawaiian Pineapple
Company) and converted to pineapple farming – hence its nickname of
“Pineapple Island”. When the self-made billionaire David Murdock acquired Castle & Cook in 1985, he also acquired Dole, and by extension the island.
Reports that Murdock was interested in selling the island had aroused rumors that Bill Gates,
who rented the island for his 1994 wedding to Melinda French, was a
potential buyer. The price of the island has not been disclosed, but was
expected to sell for north of $500 million.
The purchase includes 88,000 acres (140 square miles) of land,
containing two resort hotels – Lanai’s primary industry having moved
from pineapples and sugarcane to tourism – and a golf course. Gov.
Abercrombie said to the Honolulu Star Advertiser:
His passion for nature, particularly the ocean is well known,
specifically in the realm of America’s Cup sailing. He is also a
businessman whose record of community involvement in medical research
and education causes is equally notable.
A love of the ocean has not traditionally compelled people to buy any
available landmass entirely surrounded by it, but this seems to express
a hope that Ellison will preserve the island’s natural beauty - Murdock
had faced local opposition from the island’s 3,000 residents to plans
for wind turbines to generate and export power to Maui.
The "Garden of the Gods", Lanai
Ellison’s Oracle earlier today settled its two year old suit with Google
over accusations of copying Oracle’s Java APIs for no damages, after a
court found that it would be entitled only to statutory damages for
Google’s non patent-infringing use of small amounts of Oracle code.
Although the original claim was for $6.1 billion, the acceptance of zero
damages is intended to clear the slate and allow Oracle to proceed
immediately with its appeal.
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