Entertainment workers protest outside the Melrose Gate at Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood, Calif., on Sept. 22, 2026, one day after state attorneys general announced a settlement agreement with Paramount Skydance for its merger with Warner Bros.
Photo: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta
remains
embroiled in
litigation
over whether its products are designed to hook kids. But Zuckerberg’s got nothing on another centibillionaire pushing to expand his influence over the next generation: Larry Ellison, the octogenarian oligarch of Oracle. Ellison not only
brags
about having even more data about us than Meta but runs a
global surveillance machine
and is a
major military contractor
.
toothless
consent decree intended to resolve an
antitrust case
brought by a group of state attorneys general may clear the way for his and son David’s
President Trump-facilitated
takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, HBO, and a major film studio, Warner Bros. Pictures. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin still needs to approve the decree, and she
noted
in an order on Tuesday that she has some questions about its “factual and legal underpinnings.”
Poised to Take Over TikTok, Oracle Is Accused of Clamping Down on Pro-Palestine Dissent
If it goes through, the merger will give the Ellisons unprecedented
control
over what the next generation watches and reads on social media, news, TV, and in movies. Trump
steered co-ownership
of TikTok to Oracle earlier this year, a move enabled by the
Biden administration’s
misguided
TikTok ban
. And last year, David’s Skydance Media became Paramount Skydance,
gaining control of CBS
, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, and more in a massive consolidation
bankrolled
by Ellison senior.
We’ve seen the Ellisons’ willingness to censor content in exchange for Trump
rolling out
the regulatory
red carpet
for their media
acquisitions
… [more]
