One of the world’s richest men has moved across an ocean to kiss the ring of President Donald Trump.
Larry Ellison, the Oracle billionaire backing Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, has relocated his primary residence from Lanai—the Hawaiian island he purchased for $300 million in 2012—to Manalapan, Florida, just 20 minutes from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Forbes reported.
Ellison, 81, made headlines for shelling out $173 million for the Palm Beach estate in 2021, breaking the state record for the priciest home ever sold. The ocean-to-lake estate, which reportedly spans 16 acres, is now officially listed as his primary residence.
The tech mogul’s move comes as his son, Paramount CEO David Ellison, prepares his final pitch to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to beat out Netflix and acquire the company behind Hollywood studios, CNN, HBO, HGTV, and a vast movie and TV back catalog. The Department of Justice is currently probing Netflix’s $82.7 billion all-cash offer of $27.50 per share. Paramount has offered a counterbid of $31-per-share.
After the Ellisons’ $108 billion offer was rejected last year in favor of Netflix, the father-son duo took their bid directly to shareholders in a classic hostile takeover move. WBD has since reopened talks with Paramount, which now has until Monday to deliver a final proposal, The New York Times reported.
Part of the Ellisons’ pitch has been to highlight their apparent close ties with Trump, 79. David, a Joe Biden donor whose father is a mega-Republican donor, has gushed over the president on network television and hinted that Paramount could receive a faster path to federal approval of the merger thanks to his father’s friendship with the president.
Now, it seems Ellison—Paramount’s primary shareholder—has taken that friendship to the next level with his official move to Palm Beach County
Ellison’s sprawling mansion isn’t his first foray into Trump country. In 2020, he purchased a grand mansion in North Palm Beach for $80 million. Since then, he has quietly added Palm Beach properties to his $1 billion portfolio of luxury real estate, including spending $277 million on the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in 2024, Forbes reported.
The tech mogul has also ingratiated himself with Trump by offering up his vast portfolio of properties, including hosting a fundraiser for Trump at his Rancho Mirage, California, estate, in 2020.
At the same time, the younger Ellison has worked to earn the president’s favor. On Tuesday, he was Sen. Lindsey Graham’s guest at Trump’s State of the Union address. Graham, 70, posted a photograph on X of him with Ellison, the 43-year-old son of centibillionaire Larry Ellison, ahead of the president’s address. Graham said he was “honored” to have him. The two grinned while giving a “thumbs up.”
David has also reportedly assured Trump that, if his bid were successful, he would transform CNN, similar to his overhaul at CBS News, where he installed anti-woke opinion journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.
Seemingly, in return, Trump has become involved in the bidding war. On Saturday, he demanded that Netflix’s board remove Susan Rice, the former Obama and Biden administration official, immediately—“or pay the consequences.”
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos appeared to shrug that off, telling the BBC’s Today show that Trump “likes to do a lot of things on social media.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Paramount representatives for comment.
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