To settle suits, Oracle’s CEO to forgo up to $575 million

WILMINGTON, Del. — Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison will forgo a potential $575 million payment tied to the software maker’s acquisition of a company he controlled, in order to settle investors’ claims over the deal.

Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive officer and a company director, agreed to hand over 95 percent of an “earn-out” payment tied to Oracle’s 2011 purchase of Pillar Data Systems Inc. to resolve a pension fund’s claim that shareholders were shortchanged, according to filings in Delaware Chancery Court. Ellison owned 55 percent of Pillar, a closely held provider of data-storage systems. He was scheduled to get as much as $575 million under the agreement, based on Pillar’s performance.

“After weighing the costs and uncertainties of continued litigation against the benefits of the settlement, plaintiffs have determined it’s in the best interests of Oracle and its stockholders” to settle lawsuits over the deal, investors’ lawyers said in court filings.

Research leak costs Citigroup $30 million to settle charges

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. will pay $30 million to Massachusetts to settle charges that a company analyst in Taiwan improperly shared research with four major clients several days before making the information widely available to all.

Secretary of State William Galvin said that by giving the information to certain clients in advance, it allowed them to profit from weaker sales of iPhones.

The settlement was filed Wednesday.

Galvin told The Boston Globe that when elite clients get an unfair edge, it’s like average investors “going to the supermarket and having a weighted scale.” Galvin had the authority to pursue Citigroup because the company is registered to conduct business in Massachusetts. 

Requests for jobless benefits indicate few jobs being cut

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose just 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, hovering near six-year lows. The tiny increase suggests companies are still cutting very few jobs.

The less volatile four-week average for applications fell to 305,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the lowest since May 2007, seven months before the recession began.

Weekly applications could increase next week because of the partial government shutdown. Defense contractors and other companies that do business with the government may temporarily lay off workers.