A father, a son, and their $108bn campaign for media moguldom

Larry and David Ellison didn't always have a close relationship. Now they're one of the most intriguing partnerships in business, writes Theodore Schleifer from Washington

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Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp, speaks at an event in 2014.

(AFP)

When David Ellison became a teenager, his father, Larry, bought him a gift not usually bestowed on a 13th birthday: his own Katana stunt plane.

The two had spent little meaningful time together. But with their own aircraft, the father and son could bond in the air, practising aerobatic flips and ruling the skies together.

Now, Larry Ellison is trying to help buy his son a media empire so they can rule Hollywood and news together.

What was once a relatively weak father-and-son relationship has transformed into one of modern media's most intriguing business partnerships. Towering behind almost every move made by David Ellison, now 42 and the chief executive of Paramount, is his swaggering 81-year-old father, the billionaire co-founder of the software giant Oracle.

The two have formed an unusual tag team in their pursuit of major media deals, according to more than two dozen people with knowledge of their interactions. They bought Paramount this summer, and now they are hunting Warner Bros Discovery with a $108 billion hostile bid.

On Monday, David Ellison made it clearer than ever that his father is the centrepiece of this bid, telling Warner Bros that Larry Ellison personally guaranteed $40.4 billion for Paramount's offer. David Ellison has referred to the deal as something "we" - or "the Ellison family" - were pursuing. Both have sought to arm-twist Warner executives.

Father and son speak about five times a week, sometimes about their tennis matches or their philanthropy at the University of Oxford. But these days, often the topic is deal-making. David Ellison consults his father on every deal-related decision, one person with knowledge of their interactions said.