Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN and HBO are in his sights, and a big TikTok deal is close. If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen.<\/p>\n
For the rest of us, the effect of Mr. Ellison\u2019s gambit could be every bit as consequential, if not more so, than what happened a generation ago when Rupert Murdoch brought his brand of Down Under snark and cynicism to create what has become Fox News, intensifying our political polarization.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ellison\u2019s expected incursion into Hollywood and Big Media, if successful, could also go well beyond what other tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff have attempted through their acquisitions of The Washington Post and Time magazine, respectively. For those men, the acquisitions were more like expensive hobbies.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he will have a material stake in a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country\u2019s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison\u2019s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally \u2014 in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now.<\/p>\n
It all begins for Mr. Ellison with David\u2019s recent acquisition of what is now known as Paramount Skydance, bought with a small part of Larry\u2019s more than $350 billion fortune. That deal, which included an investment from the private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, combined the old Paramount Global with Skydance Media, the film production and entertainment company David founded in 2010.<\/p>\n
Within weeks of the August closing of the deal, it was clear that the Ellisons were serious about making Paramount Skydance a major new media force. They signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal for CBS and Paramount to broadcast and to stream the Ultimate Fighting Championship, whose chief executive spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention and is a longtime Trump supporter.<\/p>\n
The Ellisons have also made no secret of their intention to move CBS News to the right. They are negotiating to acquire The Free Press, a heterodox publication co-founded by Bari Weiss that prioritizes criticism of \u201cwoke\u201d culture, and put Ms. Weiss in a senior position at CBS News. The Ellisons also hired as the CBS ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein, the former chief executive of the conservative Hudson Institute. See where this is going, and fast?<\/p>\n
Then, following his conversation with China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping, Mr. Trump appears ready to hand an 80 percent stake in TikTok, the powerful social media platform, to the existing shareholders, among them KKR and General Atlantic, plus a new consortium will likely include Mr. Ellison\u2019s Oracle as well as Silver Lake Partners, a big private-equity firm.<\/p>\n