This is not that far off, I’m sorry to say. Even on the supposed liberal network.
One of the world’s richest men wants to buy one of the world’s most influential media assets. It’s unlikely anyone will stand in his way.
Does this sound familiar?
Yup: That’s Larry Ellison, financing his son David’s plan to buy Warner Bros. Discovery — the company that owns HBO, CNN, and the Warner Bros movie studio — weeks after buying Paramount.
And yup: That was also Elon Musk in 2022, buying what we used to call Twitter.
We know how that went.
The Ellisons’ pursuit of WBD, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, isn’t a full replica of Musk/Twitter. But there are some parallels. Most striking is that it’s hard to see anyone else walking away with WBD now that the Ellisons have raised their hands.
Unlike would-be competitors like Comcast or Disney, the Ellisons don’t need to worry about where the money comes from, or whether their shareholders like the deal. That’s because Larry Ellison is the world’s second-richest man — and while Paramount is publicly traded, the Ellisons have effective control of the company, insulating them from investor concerns.
Another Musk parallel: Larry Ellison is also a Donald Trump backer — except that unlike Musk, he has stayed in Trump’s good graces. That certainly makes it more likely that the deal gets any regulatory approval it would need.
Apparently, Larry Ellison is more of an old school Republican unlike the Tech-Bro Mafia that’s all in with Trump. So who knows. And the kid supported Joe Biden last year. So maybe this isn’t the disaster it might be.
Still, the takeover of big media by these billionaires is right up there in the Putin/Orban playbook and it couldn’t be more dangerous.