When David Ellison became a teenager, his father, Larry, bought him a gift not usually bestowed on a 13th birthday: his own Katana stunt plane. The two had spent little meaningful time together. But with their own aircraft, the father and son could bond in the air, practising aerobatic flips and ruling the skies together.
Now, Larry Ellison is trying to help buy his son a media empire so they can rule Hollywood and the news together.
Larry Ellison personally guaranteed $US40.4 billion for Paramount’s offer.Credit: AP
What was once a relatively weak father-son relationship has transformed into one of modern media’s most intriguing business partnerships. Towering behind almost every move made by Paramount CEO David Ellison, 42, is his swaggering 81-year-old father, the billionaire co-founder of software giant Oracle.
The two have formed an unusual tag team in their pursuit of major media deals, according to more than two dozen people with knowledge of their interactions. They bought Paramount this northern summer, and now they are hunting Warner Bros Discovery with a $US108 billion ($160 billion) hostile bid.
On Monday, David Ellison made it clearer than ever that his father is the centrepiece of this bid, telling Warner Bros that Larry Ellison personally guaranteed $US40.4 billion for Paramount’s offer. David Ellison has referred to the deal as something “we” — or “the Ellison family” — were pursuing. Both have sought to arm-twist Warner executives.
Father and son speak about five times a week — sometimes about their tennis matches or their joint philanthropy at the University of Oxford. But these days, often the topic is dealmaking. David Ellison consults his father at length on every deal-related decision, one person with knowledge of their interactions said.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison. One major sticking point is Warner Bros’ concern about the financing proposed by the company.Credit: Bloomberg
They discuss how to navigate US President Donald Trump, whose administration must approve any major acquisition. Larry Ellison has taken the lead in making the case to the president for why Paramount and not Netflix, its rival bidder, should win control of Warner Bros, two of the people said. Trump has pledged to be “involved” in any decision about whether to approve a deal.
Ellison, a Silicon Valley celebrity for decades, co-founded Oracle five decades ago and turned it into a $US252 billion personal fortune. He has been deferential to his son on this year’s deal talks, a person close to the process said.
When talking about the hostile bid for Warner Bros, he has often referred to his history of hostile acquisitions during the 1990s and 2000s, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. His son, who interned at Oracle for two summers during that time, watched him work through some deals, the people said.
Loading
If the Ellisons prevail, their business empire could range from CNN to Warner Bros to TikTok. That could have enormous consequences for the news and entertainment industries, perhaps making the Ellisons as influential as the Murdochs, whose media dynasty operates Fox News, The Wall StreetJournal and other major outlets.
Trump has privately said Larry Ellison assured him that he would turn CBS News, which the Ellisons took over when they bought Paramount, into a more conservative outlet, two people with knowledge of the president’s comments said.
On Sunday night, a 60 Minutes correspondent accused David Ellison’s handpicked editor-in-chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss, of making a “political” decision to hold a story about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration. Weiss told colleagues on a call on Monday that she had held the segment because it “wasn’t ready”.
David Ellison, born in 1983, was largely raised in Woodside, a town in Silicon Valley, by his father’s third wife, Barbara. She and Larry Ellison maintained a warm relationship after their divorce in 1986, several people close to the family say, but he was not a day-to-day presence in his son’s life. Oracle colleagues did not hear him talk often about David, who, when he was 23, said there had been “gaps” in their relationship growing up.
It wasn’t until the two began taking flight lessons together that they grew close. “I’m afraid I must have passed on the risk-taking gene,” Larry Ellison said about their shared daredevil interest in 2006.
David Ellison dropped out of the University of Southern California’s film school and started an acting career. His father heavily financed his first major movie as an actor, Flyboys, which was widely considered a flop.
Larry Ellison was relieved when his son left acting and entered the business side of entertainment, two people said. Their relationship grew warmer as David Ellison achieved professional success, they said. Larry Ellison has always considered himself wise about Hollywood, and one of his best friends, Steve Jobs, mentored the son about the business as well.
Larry Ellison was initially sceptical of Skydance, the Hollywood company that his son started and that bought Paramount. But he has told friends in recent years that he considers his son to be one of the smartest people in the business world. He trusts his judgment and tends to agree with him on corporate matters, several people with knowledge of the Ellisons said.
“Larry is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but I honestly think David may be even smarter,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a mentee of Larry Ellison who said he had known David since he was three.
In recent years, Larry Ellison has invited his close circle of friends to join his son for Saturday dinners at his beachside spread on Carbon Beach in Malibu, California, often followed by a movie, a person with knowledge of the activities said. And David Ellison, in turn, has sought out personal and medical advice from his father, who considers himself knowledgable about health care. A few years ago, he called his father for help on how to handle a friend’s medical emergency during a tennis match, people with knowledge of the incident recalled.
Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce and a close friend of the Ellisons.Credit: Bloomberg
“He gave me an incredible opportunity by believing in me in the beginning,” David Ellison said in an interview in 2022. “I could not be more grateful for that. And we definitely talk about work constantly and work together constantly.”
Today, Paramount’s board — David Ellison’s bosses — includes the head of his family office, Paul Marinelli, and former Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
Larry Ellison’s experiences with the press have had him, too, thinking about the news business. He was often frustrated by what he saw as sensationalised coverage about him and his personal life, several people close to him said. He only really respected publications like The Financial Times or The Economist. (Oracle often advertised on the back page of The Economist.) In more recent years, he became more antagonistic about the press.
Loading
His son appears to share some of those same feelings. He has told people privately that CBS News could improve its finances if it was perceived as less liberal. He hired Weiss, founder of The Free Press, an upstart digital news site, and a regular critic of traditional news organisations, to lead CBS News.
Those criticisms of CBS News also line up with those lodged by Trump, who has forged a close relationship with Larry Ellison. Ellison was once a stalwart Clinton-era Democrat, but he has gravitated towards Trump in large part because of the US president’s support for Israel, several people who have spoken to him said. (Both Ellisons are close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who one associate described as like an uncle figure to David Ellison.)
David Ellison is still leaning hard on his father to help him with Trump, who could spoil his father’s generosity.
Trump and Larry Ellison speak frequently, people close to Trump and Ellison’s operations said. Ellison has been frustrated at times this year by Trump’s trade policies, but in recent conversations with the president he has been obsequious, one of the people said.
A White House official said Trump’s conversations with Ellison were being mischaracterised. The official declined to be named or to elaborate.
The Paramount deal team only occasionally discusses how to take advantage of the relationship with Trump, according to a person close to Larry Ellison. But Ellison spoke to the president about Warner Bros Discovery after Netflix announced its deal to buy the company, according to a White House official and a person close to Trump.
So far, though, the efforts by the father and son do not necessarily seem to be having the desired effect.
“For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover’, than they have ever treated me before,” Trump wrote on social media last week. “If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”
