Have you heard the latest?
Larry Ellison of Oracle and sexually hostile workplace fame and his son David have bought Paramount.
Do you know what Paramount owns?
Star Trek!
This must not stand.
Oh, great: another tech billionaire owns a media company – although his son probably runs the show
Simon Sharwood Fri 6 Sep 2024 // 06:32 UTC
Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison has been revealed as holding the controlling interest in US media giant Paramount Global.
Like many media outfits founded in the 20th century, Paramount has had a tough time in recent years despite owning storied brands like CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon, plus the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises.
(Emphasis mine)
Larry Ellison's son David has done rather better in recent years by founding Skydance Media, which has teamed with Paramount on projects including Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible movies, and Trek flicks. In a 2022 interview he explained that part of Skydance's strategy is making sequels – to give audiences more of what they already like.
Great, not only is Larry f%$#ing Ellison taking over, it will be run as a part of the movie equivalent of Wonder Bread.
……
Lawyers are now finalizing the transaction, which this week resulted in the emergence of a filing [8MB PDF] that details the structure of the merged entity and reveals an org named Pinnacle Media – which Larry Ellison controls – will hold a majority voting interest.
Ellison senior contributed $1 billion to help Elon Musk buy Twitter, and now joins him as another owner of a troubled media company.
The two also share a fondness for conservative ideologies: Musk has of late endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, while Ellison reportedly ran a fundraising event for his 2020 campaign and allegedly participated in post-election discussions about the legitimacy of its outcome.
