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<DIV><FONT face=helvetica,arial,geneva size=2>London Daily
Telegraph</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>3/31/01</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><STRONG><FONT face=helvetica,arial,geneva size=5>World's
richest rivals do battle on the home front</FONT><BR><FONT
face=helvetica,arial,geneva size=2><!--zonk pullout by -->By Simon Davis in Los
Angeles<!--zonk endpullout --></FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>LARRY ELLISON, the man snapping at the heels of Microsoft
founder Bill Gates to <!-- lt="1" --><A
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004675253348906&rtmo=r9mhEhQX&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/00/4/26/cngate26.html">become
the world's richest man</A><!-- lt -->, has spent £70 million on his Silicon
Valley home - and the price is rising. <!--zonk endpullout --></DIV>
<P>Mr Ellison, the flamboyant 56-year-old who founded the software firm Oracle,
has always duelled with Mr Gates. Having the most extravagant home is the latest
bout in the conflict. Five years ago Ellison bought a 23-acre site in Woodside,
a town on the fringe of Silicon Valley regarded as the most expensive real
estate in America.
<P>The plot cost £28 million and he has already spent £43 million building a
Japanese imperial villa and gardens. The final cost could reach £107 million
when it is finished in 2003. About 81,000 cubic yards of earth were shifted to
create the property, enough to raise a football pitch 45 feet into the air.
<P>The largest lake is 2.7 acres, fed by eight waterfalls, and holds 3.9 million
gallons of water. More than 500 mature Japanese cherry trees have been imported,
with 20,000 shrubs and 5,000 tons of giant boulders - one of which has been
scooped out to form a whirlpool bath while another is being made into a
bathroom.
<P>The home is made up of 10 buildings linked by bridges, and the roofs are of
18in-thick Japanese grasses. The gardens feature a replica of the Shokintei
teahouse at the Katsura royal compound in Kyoto, Japan, built in the 1600s. On
the market, it would be the most expensive house in the country, costing more
than Gates's Seattle home.
<P>Mr Gates' compound, valued at £75 million, has parking for 28 cars and an
artificial stream with salmon. The building is set over an acre and the kitchen
floor tiles include real fossils and cost more than £700 each. An architect on
the project said: "Ellison has incredible vision and has been fearless in trying
new things."
<P>Bruce Dodd, a San Francisco architect, said: "Successful people have a
rivalry. It is interesting if it is expressed in architecture." Woodsiders are
used to lavishness. The town's 5,225 residents boast a combined wealth estimated
at £750 billion. An 11-acre plot with a few pine trees and a shed recently sold
for £36 million.
<P>The pair's rivalry is the talk of the computer industry. Mr Ellison supports
the proposed break-up of Microsoft following the recent anti-trust trial. Mr
Gates scoffs at Mr Ellison's vision of personal computers relying on the
internet rather than hard drives. Mr Ellison cuts a tanned playboy dash, wears
Armani suits and drives exotic sports cars.
<P>He has been married and divorced three times. He won the 1998 Sydney to
Hobart yacht race and likes to fly decommissioned fighter aircraft. Mr Gates, by
contrast, is a family man and archetypal computer geek. He has been married for
six years, has two children and enjoys reading and fine art.
<P>He had a privileged childhood, attending private school, while Mr Ellison was
born to an unmarried teenager and given to relatives as a baby. When Mr Ellison
planned to donate £70 million for school computers, he was reported to be livid
after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave £140 million for computers in
libraries on the eve of his announcement.
<P>Mr Ellison was recently named by Forbes magazine as the second richest
businessman working in the industry behind Mr Gates. While the Microsoft chief
has seen his fortune plummet by £26 billion in the past year, bringing him down
to £37.5 billion, Mr Ellison has seen his shoot up to £29 billion. Mr Ellison is
said to be desperate to overtake his rival.
<P>Like Mr Gates, Mr Ellison has fitted his home with the latest electronic
gadgetry. But happily for Mr Ellison his home is costing far more per square
foot than Mr Gates's, although it will not be as large.</P></FONT></BODY></HTML>