Safra Catz has been heading the company since the other co-chief Mark Hurd died in October.

"How is our search going for the new -- for a second CEO? We don't have one. We have no plans for having a second CEO," Ellison said on a conference call with analysts.

"We're hiring a bunch of people at the next layer down who are potential CEOs when both Safra and I retire, which is not anytime soon," he added.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)