THE ELLISON EMPIRE: ONE FAMILY’S BID TO RESHAPE AMERICAN MEDIA

As a pending $111 billion merger awaits regulatory review, critics warn of an unprecedented consolidation of news, entertainment, and data under a single politically connected dynasty.

Not since the Gilded Age of Rockefeller and Carnegie has a single family moved so swiftly to control so many pillars of American life. The Ellisons — Oracle founder Larry and his son David — have, in the span of roughly eighteen months, assembled what could become the most sprawling media empire in the nation’s history. And they aren’t done yet.

World’s Second Richest Man

Larry Ellison, currently the world’s second-richest man, co-founded Oracle in 1977, building the company into a titan of data management and cloud computing. His son David founded the production company Skydance in 2010 with his father’s financial backing, establishing himself as a Hollywood player behind franchises like Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible.

The family’s media ambitions accelerated dramatically in 2025. David orchestrated the Paramount–Skydance merger, with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s approval. Carr, who has notably stopped having the FCC acts as an independent agency and, rather, work at the will of Trump’s whims. This deal itself sparked controversy following Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump and the firing of Stephen Colbert. The merger gave David control over CBS, BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount+, and more than 28 local television stations. Separately, Larry Ellison emerged as a key figure in the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations, with Oracle — the software company he runs — playing a central role in overseeing the app’s data flows and algorithm, meaning the family gained influence over what roughly 170 million Americans see on one of the country’s most-used social platforms.

Ellison Bests Netflix in Bidding War

Then, in late February 2026, came the blockbuster. David Ellison emerged victorious in a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, besting Netflix in a fight that drew in President Trump and Saudi investors alike. If the pending $111 billion deal is completed, Ellison will run one of the media industry’s largest collections of movie studios, streaming platforms, and television networks. The Ellisons’ empire would gain CNN, HBO, and Comedy Central, adding them to a portfolio that already includes CBS, and would take control of massive intellectual property including Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and Harry Potter.

The controversy surrounding this accumulation of power is fierce and cuts across the political spectrum. At its core, critics argue the issue is not simply about business — it’s about democracy.

Ellison Concentration of Ownership Weakens Democracy

The root of concern centers on the family’s collective control, amplified by the fact that Larry Ellison is a close ally of President Donald Trump. If the deal is approved, David Ellison stands to control two of the key pillars of traditional news media: CNN and CBS News. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, at a press conference earlier this month, openly expressed his eagerness for David Ellison to take over CNN, framing it as a welcome corrective to the network’s coverage of U.S. military operations. Few moments have more starkly illustrated what critics fear: that the merger blurs the line between political power and editorial control.

Staffers inside these newsrooms are alarmed. CNN employees described the mood inside the company as “shaken” and “depressing” after the deal was announced, with some saying they expected colleagues to leave if faced with working under the Ellison family or CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, whom David hired to “invigorate” the network’s news division.

CBS News, already under Ellison, killed an unfavorable Trump story

CBS News, now under Weiss’s editorial leadership, already pulled a 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration — an early signal, some journalists say, of what deference to the Ellisons could mean in practice.

The political backlash has been sharp. Senator Elizabeth Warren called it an attempt by “a handful of Trump-aligned billionaires” to seize control of what Americans watch. Senator Bernie Sanders framed it bluntly as oligarchy. Seth Stern, head of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned that Ellison would “throw the First Amendment, CNN’s reporters and HBO’s filmmakers under the bus” if they stood in the way of his corporate ambitions.

For many observers, the deeper concern goes beyond any single editorial decision. Critics note that Larry Ellison’s control over TikTok’s algorithm — which determines what content is amplified for hundreds of millions of users — combined with his family’s growing dominance over broadcast and cable news, raises the possibility that a single politically aligned family could shape both the information Americans consume and the AI systems trained on that data.

The deal is pending regulatory review. Paramount has expressed confidence in swift approval, and the FCC is unlikely to intervene since no broadcast licenses formally change hands. Whether regulators agree — or whether Congress steps in — may determine whether American media enters a new era of consolidation unlike anything it has seen before.

Here is a list of media companies under Ellison ownership or are in the process of Ellison acquiring:

• BET
• Cartoon Network
• CBS
• CNN
• Comedy Central
• DC Studios
• Discovery Channel
• Fandango
• HBO
• Mirimax
• MTV
• Nickelodeon
• Paramount
• Pluto TV
• Showtime
• TBS
• The CW
• TikTok
• Warner Bros.

The deal’s ultimate fate now rests with the Department of Justice. But the DOJ, led by Trump sycophant Pam Bondi, is also no longer an agency that acts with any independence and openly acts to protect Trump or take actions that Whatever the outcome, the Ellison family has already fundamentally changed the conversation about who controls the American story.