Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN, HBO and a major share of TikTok are in his sights. 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.
For the rest of us, the effect of Mr. Ellison’s 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.
Mr. Ellison’s 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.
Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he could soon end up controlling 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’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now.
It all begins for Mr. Ellison with David’s recent acquisition of what is now known as Paramount Skydance, bought with a small part of Larry’s 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.
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.
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The post The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News appeared first on New York Times.
