By Ivan Nechepurenko
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, practicing 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 news together.
What was once a relatively weak father-and-son relationship has transformed into one of modern media’s most intriguing business partnerships.
Towering behind almost every move made by David Ellison, now 42 and the chief executive of Paramount, is his swaggering 81-year-old father, the billionaire cofounder of the 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 summer, and now they are hunting Warner Bros. Discovery with a $108 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 $40.4 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 deal-making. David Ellison consults his father at length on every deal-related decision, one person with knowledge of their interactions said.
They discuss how to navigate President 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.
A Silicon Valley celebrity for decades, Ellison cofounded Oracle five decades ago and turned it into a $252 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.
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 Street Journal 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 was initially skeptical 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, trusts his judgment and tends to agree with him on corporate matters.
Larry Ellison mostly stayed behind the scenes at Skydance. He invested an undisclosed amount in the company as early as 2006, and even more during a $150 million fund-raising round in 2010 that made him the largest shareholder.
