Everything Larry and David Ellison Will Control if Paramount Buys Warner Bros.

Less than a year ago, Skydance Media closed its $8 billion merger with Paramount, making the Trump-friendly Ellison family—billionaire Oracle founder Larry and his son David, CEO of Paramount Skydance—among the most powerful media moguls in the country. A looming Paramount Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would expand their empire even further.

Now that Netflix has backed out of its bid to acquire WBD, the Ellisons stand to gain an entirely new trove of significant intellectual property, from DC Comics to Harry Potter. As part of the deal, the Ellison Trust is committing to $45.7 billion in equity and a $7 billion termination fee if federal regulators don’t approve of it, according to Reuters.

Paramount’s merger with Skydance has already brought about mass layoffs, including at CBS News, where Free Press founder Bari Weiss is leading a cultural overhaul as editor-in-chief. In January, Oracle ...