Oracle founder Larry Ellison is stepping down as CEO.

He will be replaced by two Oracle executives: Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, who will be co-CEOs. Ellison will be the executive chairman of Oracle's board, as well as the company's chief technology officer.

Oracle's shares are off by 3% on the news, though that may be due to weaker than expected earnings.

Here's what we know about the new co-CEOs of Oracle, which creates enterprise software and databases. Catz has been at Oracle for 15 years, serving as an executive in a variety of roles. She has been a president since 2004. From 2005 to 2008, she was CFO.

Ellison would eat up executives. Many presidents have come and gone while Catz has been at the company. The fact that Catz has lasted this long is impressive and shows she's earned her spot as CEO.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz flickr/senchang Hurd has been at Oracle since 2010 and was previously CEO of HP. He was ousted in a strange scandal that involved fudging expense accounts while flirting with a b-movie actress named Jodie Fisher.

Months after Hurd was out of HP, Adam Lashinsky at Fortune published a deep account of what "really" happened to get Hurd fired.

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd AP

According to Lashinsky, Hurd was tossed because he did not want to disclose publicly that Fisher, and her attorney Gloria Allred, were accusing him of sexual harassment. The board wanted Hurd to disclose the charge, because they knew it would eventually get out.

As Hurd fought over disclosure, the board gradually lost faith in Hurd and assumed he was a liar. Hurd says there was no relationship with Fisher, but as more details emerged it became clear something was happening between the two — be it a friendship or more. Once the board stopped trusting him, they decided to toss him.

Jodie Fisher IMDB The board was fully supportive of Hurd until the harassment charge came to light.

Whatever the reasons for his ouster, when he left, HP went into a tailspin. The stock tanked, and it's still not back to where it was. While at HP, he cut headcount and killed the company's R&D budget. He was not well-liked by the rank and file.

"Hurd was fawned over by Wall St. but he made the numbers at the expense of the future of HP with R&D cuts, selling off HP's real estate and treating employees like dirt. Good riddance for him," one employee told us at the time.

Ellison founded Oracle in the late '70s, and the company's software has become a key backbone for the internet and is widely used by the government and banking sectors.

Ellison came up with the idea for Oracle after reading a paper about relational databases from IBM research. A relational database simply makes it easier to organize information. Instead of a static collection of data, you can sort information more easily.

Through aggressive salesmanship Ellison turned Oracle into one the most valuable companies in the world. Its market cap is ~$183 billion. It's expected to do $40.2 billion in sales this year.

Oracle turned Ellison into the 7th richest man in the world, with a net worth of ~$46 billion.

Unlike his more austere counterparts in the technology industry, Ellison was ostentatious, brash, and bold. He owns his own Hawaiian island, and many homes, yachts, and cars. His motto for life comes from Genghis Khan: “It’s not sufficient I succeed. Everyone else must fail.”

Here's the press release:

Safra Catz and Mark Hurd Appointed CEO

REDWOOD SHORES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/18/14 -- The Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) Board of Directors today announced that it has electedLarry Ellison to the position of Executive Chairman of Oracle's Board and appointed him the company's Chief Technology Officer. Jeff Henley, who has served as Oracle's Chairman for the last 10 years, was appointed Oracle's Vice Chairman of the Board.

The Oracle Board also promoted both Safra Catz and Mark Hurd to the position of CEO, Oracle Corporation. All manufacturing, finance, and legal functions will continue to report to Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. All sales, service and vertical industry global business units will continue to report to Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd. All software and hardware engineering functions will continue to report to Oracle Chairman and CTO,Larry Ellison.

"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," said Larry Ellison. "All the other reporting relationships will remain unchanged. The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future. Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."

"Larry has made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy," said the Oracle Board's Presiding Director, Dr. Michael Boskin. "Safra and Mark are exceptional executives who have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to lead, manage and grow the company. The Directors are thrilled that the best senior executive team in the industry will continue to move the company forward into a bright future."