The tech billionaire shifting the world’s media to the right

Billionaire Larry Ellison may be one of the world’s richest men, but for decades he was overshadowed by tech luminaries like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

Not any more.

The 81-year-old tycoon, whose net worth briefly overtook Musk’s earlier this month, has become a pivotal force in the global media and tech landscape, capturing the zeitgeist of Donald Trump’s tech-dominated administration.

Larry Ellison has become a pivotal force in the global media and tech landscape.Credit: Bloomberg

While Oracle, his software giant, may not be a household name, hopes of an AI boom have propelled the company into territory reserved for the likes of the “magnificent seven” – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla and Nvidia. Shares rose an astonishing 43 per cent last week after a positive trading update.

Now Ellison is using his billions to reshape the media landscape to his own whims, teeing up a shift to the right by America’s TV, film and tech industries.

Most recently, the tycoon has also been bankrolling his son David’s media venture Skydance. It recently clinched an $US8 billion ($12 billion) takeover of Channel 5 owner Paramount and has already set its sights on Hollywood behemoth Warner Bros Discovery.

Meanwhile, Ellison is a linchpin in the conglomerate which could buy up TikTok’s US assets after Trump ordered a sale of the Chinese social media giant.

Recently asked who should buy TikTok, Trump responded: “I’d like Larry to buy it.”

This flurry of dealmaking means Ellison is poised to become one of the most powerful media moguls in the world. And as he cosies up to Trump, he looks poised to play a key role in a fundamental shake-up of US media.

Ellison, who founded Oracle in California in 1977, belongs to a different breed of tech entrepreneurs from the outspoken Silicon Valley tycoons of today.

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Despite making billions from his software company, in which he holds a 41 per cent stake, the businessman has largely kept himself out of the public eye, rarely giving interviews and keeping his social media presence to a minimum.

Instead, Ellison has had fun. From his successful yachting escapades in the Americas Cup to buying up Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, he has demonstrated extravagant tastes.

He has spent an estimated $US875 million on the Oracle racing team, which has won the Americas Cup twice, and around $US200 million on a California estate modelled on a 16th-century imperial Japanese palace.

Ellison invested $US1 billion in Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter because, he said, it “would be lots of fun”. He has been married six times, with his latest wife Jolin Zhu almost 50 years his junior.

But it is his moves in the media sector that have put the tycoon firmly in the spotlight, raising questions over how Ellison’s politics will influence the sector.

Media play

Through Skydance’s takeover of Paramount, which was also funded in part by private equity firm RedBird Capital, he has gained a foothold in a media empire that owns Channel 5 and CBS.

Should the proposed swoop on Warner Bros Discovery be successful, this influence would expand to one of the world’s most prestigious film studios, as well as HBO and CNN.

Meanwhile, the possible deal for TikTok, which is also backed by Marc Andreessen’s venture capital firm a16z, means Ellison could be a key player in a trend-setting social media platform that has an audience of almost 150 million in the US. The deal is yet to be finalised, with the US and China clashing over the progress of the deal on Friday.

Taken together, these investments put Ellison at the heart of some of the world’s most powerful outlets in both traditional and new media – giving him power over cross-generational platforms that would be the envy of any media mogul.

‘Trump is knocking off one by one all the late-night TV show hosts, at the same time the actual ownership of the networks is changing as well ... There’s a sort of conservativisation taking place of big US media.’

This newfound power raises questions about Ellison’s political leanings. A former supporter of Bill Clinton, the pragmatic tycoon has more recently aligned himself with Trump. In 2020, he hosted a fundraiser for the US president at his California estate. It later emerged that he joined a call discussing strategies for contesting Trump’s election defeat.

There are already signs that Ellison’s newly-acquired media outlets are shifting to the Right.

Paramount-owned CBS sacked late-night host Stephen Colbert days after he described the parent company’s decision to settle a lawsuit with Trump as a “big fat bribe”.

Skydance also vowed to shun diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies to help secure approval for the merger from the Trump administration, while it has now installed an ally of the president in the newly created role of “ombudsman” at CBS News.

Skydance is now said to be in discussions about buying The Free Press, an online media outlet founded by the high-profile “anti-woke” journalist Bari Weiss. It is thought that Weiss would be handed a senior role at CBS as part of a deal worth at least $US100 million.

Trump tightens grip

Whether Ellison’s takeover of the US media – and the ensuing shift to the right – is born of ideology or merely a pragmatic approach to protecting his business interests remains unclear.

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But it comes as Trump tightens his grip over his liberal media foes.

Disney last week took Jimmy Kimmel off air following his comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk – a move cheered by the US president.

Meanwhile, the right-leaning stance of Murdoch’s outlets has been ensured following the ascension of eldest son Lachlan to the helm of the empire.

“You’ve got this very intriguing parallel movement taking place,” says Alex DeGroote, a media analyst.

“Trump is knocking off one by one all the late-night TV show hosts, but at the same time the actual ownership of the networks is changing as well ... There’s a sort of conservativisation taking place of big US media.”

The redrawing of the US media landscape goes beyond Ellison as Trump opportunistically seeks to consolidate his power.

The octogenarian has waited decades to come out of the shadows of the Silicon Valley messiahs. Now it’s his turn to call the shots.

The Telegraph, London

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