How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
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Economy
/ March 12, 2026
How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
In 2012, the Oracle CEO bought most of the island of Lānaʻi. What happened next doesn’t bode well for his new empire of media properties.
Matthew Vickers
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Oracle CEO Larry Ellison addresses the 2014 New Economy Summit in Tokyo.
(Toru Yamanaka / AFP via Getty Images)
With a Borg-like grip on corporate media machinations, Larry Ellison and his son, David, are consolidating a vast and unprecedented communications empire. The billionaire Oracle founder launched this mergers-and-acquisitions binge last year, buying out the American arm of TikTok, after Congress mandated its sale to a US buyer in a fit of anti-Chinese paranoia. Then came the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger, which delivered CBS News into the hands of the unqualified MAGA shill Bari Weiss at David Ellison’s executive behest. And Paramount Skydance, as the merged company is now known, is planning to add Warner Bros.–Discovery to its media empire after a prolonged bidding battle with Netflix—a move with potentially “apocalyptic” consequences for the struggling film industry, according to David Dayen of the American Prospect. The current deal, valued at a cool $111 billion, will certainly mean seismic layoffs in Hollywood, which is already reeling from the fallout of the streaming revolution.
If the Warner deal goes through, the Ellisons would own, among other things, the US arm of TikTok, DC Comics, the Harry Potter franchise, HBO, and a majority of cable news channels, including Donald Trump’s long-standing “fake news” obsession, CNN.
Yet the Ellison media putsch isn’t ultimately rooted in MAGA politics so much as in Larry Ellison’s drive for maximum vertically integrated monopoly power. Indeed, for all the ideological destruction David Ellison has wrought at properties like CBS, he’s reportedly not a diehard Trumpist, professing “socially liberal” sympathies while having donated $1 million to Joe Biden’s abortive 2024 reelection campaign. What the Ellisons covet is control, and to understand how deep that family drive runs, it’s instructive to turn away from the current boardroom drama and review another full-court press Larry Ellison mounted to gain quasi-feudal dominion over the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi in 2012.
Ellison’s designs on Lānaʻi began with the once-sleepy island’s emergence as an ultra-luxe travel destination for the high-rolling set. Unlike many other Silicon Valley moguls, the Oracle billionaire isn’t an ideological adherent of the libertarian right’s “networked state” fantasies of secession from the regulatory reach of …
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How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
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Current Issue
Economy
/ March 12, 2026
How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
In 2012, the Oracle CEO bought most of the island of Lānaʻi. What happened next doesn’t bode well for his new empire of media properties.
Matthew Vickers
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison addresses the 2014 New Economy Summit in Tokyo.
(Toru Yamanaka / AFP via Getty Images)
With a Borg-like grip on corporate media machinations, Larry Ellison and his son, David, are consolidating a vast and unprecedented communications empire. The billionaire Oracle founder launched this mergers-and-acquisitions binge last year, buying out the American arm of TikTok, after Congress mandated its sale to a US buyer in a fit of anti-Chinese paranoia. Then came the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger, which delivered CBS News into the hands of the unqualified MAGA shill Bari Weiss at David Ellison’s executive behest. And Paramount Skydance, as the merged company is now known, is planning to add Warner Bros.–Discovery to its media empire after a prolonged bidding battle with Netflix—a move with potentially “apocalyptic” consequences for the struggling film industry, according to David Dayen of the American Prospect. The current deal, valued at a cool $111 billion, will certainly mean seismic layoffs in Hollywood, which is already reeling from the fallout of the streaming revolution.
If the Warner deal goes through, the Ellisons would own, among other things, the US arm of TikTok, DC Comics, the Harry Potter franchise, HBO, and a majority of cable news channels, including Donald Trump’s long-standing “fake news” obsession, CNN.
Yet the Ellison media putsch isn’t ultimately rooted in MAGA politics so much as in Larry Ellison’s drive for maximum vertically integrated monopoly power. Indeed, for all the ideological destruction David Ellison has wrought at properties like CBS, he’s reportedly not a diehard Trumpist, professing “socially liberal” sympathies while having donated $1 million to Joe Biden’s abortive 2024 reelection campaign. What the Ellisons covet is control, and to understand how deep that family drive runs, it’s instructive to turn away from the current boardroom drama and review another full-court press Larry Ellison mounted to gain quasi-feudal dominion over the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi in 2012.
Ellison’s designs on Lānaʻi began with the once-sleepy island’s emergence as an ultra-luxe travel destination for the high-rolling set. Unlike many other Silicon Valley moguls, the Oracle billionaire isn’t an ideological adherent of the libertarian right’s “networked state” fantasies of secession from the regulatory reach of …
How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
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How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
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Current Issue
Economy
/ March 12, 2026
How Larry Ellison’s Acquisition Binge Began in Hawaii
In 2012, the Oracle CEO bought most of the island of Lānaʻi. What happened next doesn’t bode well for his new empire of media properties.
Matthew Vickers
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison addresses the 2014 New Economy Summit in Tokyo.
(Toru Yamanaka / AFP via Getty Images)
With a Borg-like grip on corporate media machinations, Larry Ellison and his son, David, are consolidating a vast and unprecedented communications empire. The billionaire Oracle founder launched this mergers-and-acquisitions binge last year, buying out the American arm of TikTok, after Congress mandated its sale to a US buyer in a fit of anti-Chinese paranoia. Then came the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger, which delivered CBS News into the hands of the unqualified MAGA shill Bari Weiss at David Ellison’s executive behest. And Paramount Skydance, as the merged company is now known, is planning to add Warner Bros.–Discovery to its media empire after a prolonged bidding battle with Netflix—a move with potentially “apocalyptic” consequences for the struggling film industry, according to David Dayen of the American Prospect. The current deal, valued at a cool $111 billion, will certainly mean seismic layoffs in Hollywood, which is already reeling from the fallout of the streaming revolution.
If the Warner deal goes through, the Ellisons would own, among other things, the US arm of TikTok, DC Comics, the Harry Potter franchise, HBO, and a majority of cable news channels, including Donald Trump’s long-standing “fake news” obsession, CNN.
Yet the Ellison media putsch isn’t ultimately rooted in MAGA politics so much as in Larry Ellison’s drive for maximum vertically integrated monopoly power. Indeed, for all the ideological destruction David Ellison has wrought at properties like CBS, he’s reportedly not a diehard Trumpist, professing “socially liberal” sympathies while having donated $1 million to Joe Biden’s abortive 2024 reelection campaign. What the Ellisons covet is control, and to understand how deep that family drive runs, it’s instructive to turn away from the current boardroom drama and review another full-court press Larry Ellison mounted to gain quasi-feudal dominion over the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi in 2012.
Ellison’s designs on Lānaʻi began with the once-sleepy island’s emergence as an ultra-luxe travel destination for the high-rolling set. Unlike many other Silicon Valley moguls, the Oracle billionaire isn’t an ideological adherent of the libertarian right’s “networked state” fantasies of secession from the regulatory reach of …
