Oracle Hires Former Microsoft CFO As President And Finance Chief

Larry Ellison is bringing another deputy on board.

Oracle said Friday morning it has hired Greg Maffei, a former CFO at Microsoft, as its president and CFO. Maffei oversaw a period of expansion and investment at Microsoft from 1997 to 2000 and joins Oracle in the midst of its own run of acquisitions.

Maffei, 45, already has started work at Oracle, the company said, and will oversee its legal, human-resources, manufacturing, distribution, and real-estate operations in addition to his role as CFO. In a statement, CEO Ellison said "the entire senior management team is looking forward to working with Greg."

Oracle employs two other presidents who report to Ellison. Safra Catz is in charge of business development, and Charles Phillips works on customer relations.

Maffei joins Oracle six months after it completed its $10.6 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft Inc., the largest takeover ever in the software industry. Oracle also recently outbid competitor SAP to acquire business software maker Retek Inc.

While at Microsoft, Maffei oversaw a fourfold increase in the company's market capitalization and large investments in AT&T and Comcast Corp. Most recently, Maffei worked as chairman and CEO of 360Networks Corp., a fiber-optic networking company based in Seattle. While there, he restructured the company and paid off its debt, according to the statement Oracle released.

Maffei joins an Oracle executive suite in which it's been historically difficult to share power with Ellison. Former president Ray Lane, who managed Oracle's operations in the '90s, left in 2000 to join Silicon Valley venture-capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a general partner. Former Oracle executive VP Gary Bloom also left the company in 2000 after 14 years to become chairman and CEO of Veritas Software Corp., whose shareholders today agreed to merge with Symantec Corp. Maffei replaces former Oracle CFO Harry You, who resigned in March after just eight months on the job to become CEO of consulting company BearingPoint.

Shares of Oracle were up a penny to $12.52 in early-afternoon Nasdaq trading.