REDWOOD SHORES – Oracle Corp. has hired Jeff Epstein as its new chief financial officer to replace Safra Catz, who had held the job for nearly three years while also serving as one of the business software maker's co-presidents.

Epstein, 52, had been CFO at online video game publisher Oberon Media before accepting Oracle's job offer Wednesday. He will join Oracle Sept. 8.

Epstein's resume includes CFO stints at several other companies, including Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc., which was acquired by Google Inc. for $3.2 billion earlier this year.

Oracle is paying Epstein a $700,000 salary and may award him a $1.2 million bonus depending on the company's and his individual performance, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Redwood Shores-based company also intends to award Epstein with 1 million stock options. The terms of the stock option grant will be set at a later date.

Oracle shares rose 19 cents Wednesday to close at $22.34.

Epstein will be overseeing the books at one of the software industry's biggest and most closely watched companies with annual revenue of $22 billion.

Catz is the only person who has done the job for more than a year since Oracle's longtime CFO, Jeff Henley, gave up the responsibilities shortly after he became the company's chairman in 2004.

Harry You replaced Henley as CFO, but left after just eight months to take another job at a smaller company. Then another CFO, Greg Maffei, left in November 2005 to take a job at Liberty Media Corp., where he was eventually promoted to chief executive.

Catz, a former investment banker, had been handling the CFO duties since Maffei bolted. She will continue as Oracle's co-president and will still oversee the finance department, with Epstein reporting to her. Charles Phillips, a former stock analyst, is Oracle's other co-president.

They both report to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.