Oracle Stopped $115m donation to Harvard University

[devaraj]

Source:
http://software.silicon.com

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison has reversed his decision to donate some $115m to Harvard University following the resignation of the school's president, Larry Summers, an Oracle spokesman said on Tuesday.
The decision comes the same week Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett gifted the bulk of his $44bn fortune to charity and just after Microsoft founder Bill Gates said he would ease out of his day-to-day role at the company to focus on philanthropy.

An Oracle spokesman said Ellison reconsidered his decision to fund a programme at Harvard to study the quality of governmental healthcare problems worldwide because Summers' participation was critical.
Harvard officials were not immediately available for comment.

Summers sparked controversy last year when he said innate differences between men and women may help explain why so few women work in the academic sciences, and he became embroiled in several feuds with faculty members during his time as president. He announced his resignation in February.

The spokesman said: "In light of Summers' resignation, Larry Ellison has decided to reconsider his decision. There was never a formal agreement but it had been talked about."

Instead, Ellison will announce a different contribution within the next few weeks, though the spokesman said he did not have details about the size of the donation or the recipient.

Oracle also said earlier this week that Ellison would give $100m to the Ellison Medical Foundation as part of a settlement to a shareholder lawsuit charging him with insider trading

[JGuru]

Harward's Summers sparked the controversy that women are not fit for Academic sciences. And because of this heated debate on Gender bias , he quit. I don't understand why Larry Ellison has reversed his decision to donate. Something looks fishy here. Ellison also involved in 'insider trading' !! All these CEOs act like holy angels by giving money to philanthropy, infact they are not. It's just another way to reduce their tax burden!!

[iMav]

well we can be happy about one thing its not in India that 'such episodes' happens, politics is every where however i still think that to save his publicimage oracle may still ive some form of charity.