As little as a year ago, Larry Ellison, at 80 years old, appeared to be winding down his long career as a tech mogul. And his son David Ellison owned a lone Hollywood company, and a rather minuscule one at that: Skydance Media.
But now the two are on the brink of overseeing an empire that touches nearly every corner of news, entertainment and tech.
If the Ellisons close their deal to fold Warner Bros. Discovery into what is now Paramount Skydance, as they are poised to do after Netflix abandoned its bid on Thursday night, the family will control companies as powerful and varied as CBS, Oracle, CNN, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and HBO.
Add in Oracle’s recent 15 percent stake in the venture that controls the American arm of TikTok, and their holdings would rival those of the Murdoch family at the height of its powers. In the 2000s and 2010s, the patriarch, Rupert, oversaw a major Hollywood studio, the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, the FX cable network, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Sky satellite television service in Europe.
Even without TikTok and Oracle, the Ellisons will have assembled a collection of Hollywood properties that, while smaller, puts them in the orbit of superpowers like Disney.
Here is a look at what the Ellisons could control if Paramount Skydance — formed when Skydance merged with Paramount in August 2025 — ultimately closes on its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery:
Technology
Oracle
The $430 billion database software giant is main source of Larry Ellison’s fortune of about $175 billion. The company, which he founded, works closely with major companies, including OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, on data centers that can run and deliver its technology to consumers. Mr. Ellison serves as Oracle’s executive chairman and chief technology officer. The company had $58 billion in revenue last year, a 9 percent increase from 2024.
TikTok
As of last month, Oracle controls 15 percent of the joint venture that operates TikTok, the enormously popular video app, in the United States. Oracle’s stake is as high as that of any of the other investors, which include Silver Lake, an investment company, and MGX, an Emirati investment firm. The venture has licensed the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm from ByteDance, and it will also have the ability to moderate content in America.
Television
CBS
Even in the diminished state of broadcast television, CBS, which the Ellisons took over with the Paramount deal last year, remains a powerful weapon. The network owns marquee sports rights to the N.F.L., the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament and the Masters golf tournament. With prime-time hits like “Tracker,” “Survivor” and “Matlock,” the so-called Tiffany Network has ranked No. 1 among the broadcast networks for years. David Ellison has publicly called it “a remarkable asset.”
HBO Max
Simply: HBO remains the crown jewel of premium television. The network, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, has won the best drama award at the Emmys eight times in the last decade, dominating well-heeled rivals like Netflix, Apple and Amazon. The network has been on a roll lately, with a surprise hit medical drama, “The Pitt,” as well as its latest “Game of Thrones” spinoff, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” HBO is led by long-tenured executives, including its chairman Casey Bloys. Add in one of the most enviable premium libraries in TV — “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Veep,” “The Wire” — and another surprise in “Heated Rivalry,” a show HBO Max licensed from Canada for very little money, and it will be a boon for the Ellisons.
Cable Networks
Cable viewership and revenues have plummeted, but the Ellisons are betting they can wring some life out of them. Paramount Skydance already owns MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET. Coming with the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition: HGTV, the Food Network, Discovery, TLC, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, TBS and TNT.
Paramount+
After taking over Paramount, Mr. Ellison promptly enlisted Cindy Holland, one of the key architects of Netflix’s original programming strategy, as the head of Paramount+, which has 79 million subscribers. Paramount+ is home to Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman,” “Tulsa King,” “1923” and “Lioness” dramas, as well as the U.F.C. and the “Star Trek” universe. Paramount has rights to Mr. Sheridan’s future TV output through the end of 2028.
News
CNN
The self-branded “worldwide leader in news” may have diminished ratings and declining revenue, but it remains a hugely influential news source with a very big newsroom. The network, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, has more than 3,000 employees worldwide, and a strong bench of talent that includes Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Kaitlan Collins and John King.
CBS News
The Ellisons promised major changes to CBS News, one of the country’s most decorated news organizations, after they purchased Paramount last year. “60 Minutes” and “CBS Sunday Morning” remain among the most popular TV series in broadcast news. In October, David Ellison hired Bari Weiss, a critic of traditional news companies, as its top editor. She has since appointed a new “CBS Evening News” anchor, Tony Dokoupil, who has gotten off to a bumpy start, and she postponed a “60 Minutes” report that was critical of the Trump administration, drawing accusations of political interference.
Movies
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. is Hollywood’s second-biggest trove of movie properties after Disney. Its franchises include “Harry Potter,” “Batman,” “The Conjuring” and “The Lord of the Rings.” Warner Bros. also owns cartoon characters like Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones and Bugs Bunny. The studio’s library contains more than 10,000 movies, including “Casablanca.” (Through an acquisition in the 1990s, Warner’s library also includes other classic films like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind.”) The 110-acre Warner lot in Burbank, Calif., has more than 30 soundstages.
Paramount Pictures
Hollywood’s fourth-place movie studio in 2025, with roughly $565 million in domestic ticket sales, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. Paramount has struggled to compete in a franchise-focused movie business; most of its big properties, including “Mission: Impossible,” “Star Trek” and “Transformers,” have been overworked and need reinvigorating. Paramount’s library includes more than 4,000 films, including “Top Gun,” “The Godfather” and “Grease.” The 65-acre Paramount lot has some of Hollywood’s biggest soundstages and production facilities, including a 900,000-gallon water tank for aquatic scenes.
John Koblin covers the television industry for The Times.
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