The Ellisons are close to US President Donald Trump, whose campaigns and causes they have funded for a decade. The family now owns a big chunk of TikTok America. Larry’s software firm, Oracle, has the sole rights to host all of TikTok America’s data on its cloud servers, on top of its 15% stake in the company that controls TikTok’s American assets, including its local algorithm.
Forget all the headlines about Hollywood and the future of filmmaking. Consider movies like Back to the Future, one of my favourites, where the subplot is far more compelling than the main story itself. We have all seen the movie before. What at first looks like an inconsequential subplot eventually unfolds as a key part of a vivid bigger picture.
Look no further than the streaming giant Netflix, battling it out with Paramount Skydance Corp, which is run by David Ellison and backed by his software billionaire father, Larry Ellison, for control of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), to understand the transformation of the global entertainment industry. Earlier this month, Netflix made a US$83 billion ($64.7 billion) bid (including debt) for WBD’s streaming and studio business, excluding its global networks, including CNN, which are being sold separately. Paramount has countered with a nearly US$108.3 billion bid for all of WBD, including CNN. On paper, Netflix’s bid is worth more because Paramount seems to be undervaluing WBD’s global networks. Analysts expect Paramount to hike its bid for all of WBD by another 12%–15% in the coming weeks.
