How A Billionaire And His Son Pulled Off The $8 Billion Paramount Deal

Forbes

David Ellison, son of software centi-billionaire Larry Ellison, nurtured a relationship with Paramount over the past 15 years as a movie producer. His father’s fortune and political status also scored points.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2025/07/29/how-worlds-second-richest-person-larry-ellison-david-ellison-his-son-8-billion-skydance-paramount-deal/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how the world's second richest person and his son pulled off the $8 billion

00:06Paramount deal. The Federal Communications Commission greenlit the $8 billion merger

00:13between Paramount and Skydance Media last week, 383 days after the deal was first announced.

00:20The merger, which is set to close on August 7th, will transform Larry Ellison, who is 80 years old,

00:26and his son David Ellison, who is 42, into one of the most powerful duos in Hollywood,

00:33wielding influence over TV shows, movies, news, and more. As Paramount's chairman,

00:39CEO, and owner of 50% of its voting rights, David Ellison will oversee an entertainment empire with

00:45more than 1,200 film titles, including everything from Top Gun Maverick to a remake of It's a Wonderful

00:52Life, plus distribution rights to another 2,400 films. Other crown jewels include popular channels

00:59MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and CBS News. But it's his father who controls the purse strings and owns

01:07the equity, according to regulatory filings. The elder Ellison may have helped get the deal over

01:13the hump in other ways, too. The merger was approved only after some key concessions from

01:18both parties. Paramount agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to be used for his future

01:25presidential library in July to resolve a lawsuit over 60 minutes' edit of a 2024 interview of Kamala

01:31Harris. A couple of weeks later, CBS said it would end Trump critic Stephen Colbert's late-night show

01:38next May, citing cost overruns. Ellison's Skydance, meanwhile, had to make written commitments

01:44promising that the company's programming would embody, quote, a diversity of viewpoints from

01:49across the political and ideological spectrum, and that it would, quote, adopt measures that can

01:54root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media. This, per the FCC's letter

02:00announcing the decision. Another late change had to do with Ellison's control. FCC filings from

02:07September 2024 initially showed that David's father, Oracle co-founder and chief technology

02:13officer Larry Ellison, the second richest person on earth, held all of the voting and equity shares

02:19in the Pinnacle Media Ventures holding companies acquiring the Paramount stake. These shares were held

02:25through his Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust, the same entity that owns his Oracle shares and most of

02:31his estimated $1.5 billion in real estate. Per these filings, the Ellison family also owned 67% of the equity

02:39and 78% of the voting rights in Skydance, in part via Sayonara LLC, a parent company of the Pinnacle Entities.

02:48In October 2024, an amendment filed with the FCC changed the voting rights so that David Ellison held 100% of the

02:56Pinnacle Entity's voting interest, but Dad kept the equity. There was yet another change in mid-July.

03:03This time, David's voting rights in post-merger Paramount were reduced to 50%. His father, Larry, got 27.5%,

03:11according to FCC filings. That means no single shareholder can outvote David, but it also means that he needs

03:18his father to approve everything from budgets to key investments. Larry Ellison appears to control all of the

03:24Ellison family's approximately 26% equity stake tied to those voting shares in post-merger Paramount, plus at least

03:3210% more with no voting power, assuming all existing shareholders choose to receive their maximum cash-out.

03:38On top of that, the Ellisons also own another 6.7% equity stake through Skydance Entertainment Group, per the initial

03:472024 filing, although it's unclear how that's split between father and son.

03:51If his dad ever decided to team up with Jerry Cardinale's Redbird Capital, which invested in

03:57David's Skydance in 2020 and controls the remaining 22.5% of the vote, the two parties could block David

04:04Ellison. David Ellison could also sway Redbird if his father disagreed. It's possible that President

04:11Trump's taking office in January also had something to do with it, too. While David Ellison met with both

04:17Trump and FCC chair Brendan Carr ahead of the deal's approval, he also donated around $1 million to Joe

04:23Biden's re-election campaign in February 2024. Meanwhile, Larry Ellison and Trump have a long-standing

04:30relationship. In January, Ellison showed up at the White House to help Trump announce his $500 billion

04:37Stargate AI infrastructure initiative. And Trump told reporters that same month that he'd be open to an

04:43Ellison-led deal to buy TikTok, for which Trump has extended its sell-by date to September. Plus,

04:50Ellison has promised an overhaul of Paramount-owned CBS, potentially ceded by Skydance's vow to end

04:55diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. For full coverage, check out Phoebe Lew's piece

05:02on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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