Larry Ellison expanded his bank borrowing by pledging shares of Oracle $ORCL, Tesla $TSLA, SpaceX and Paramount $PARA Skydance as collateral while his son's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery neared completion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The lenders are Citigroup $C, HSBC, JPMorgan $JPM, UBS and BNP Paribas, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited liens the banks filed in California. The banks that gave figures reported combined liens on 87 million Oracle shares, compared with roughly 30 million 12 months before.
JPMorgan broadened a loan agreement from May 2025, backed by Oracle and Tesla shares, on Oct. 1. It reaffirmed the existing collateral and brought SpaceX and Paramount Skydance stock into the package, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citigroup made similar additions on Sept. 25 and increased the number of Oracle shares backing its loan from 30 million to 45 million. Its Tesla collateral fell to 1.5 million shares from 3 million.
The amount Larry Ellison has borrowed is unclear, according to The Wall Street Journal. Researchers who follow markets and private bankers told the outlet that lenders typically advance roughly 50% of the value of a heavily traded stock like Oracle's, though haircuts could reduce that to 30% or lower. At that half-value rule of thumb, the 87 million Oracle shares could support about $5.7 billion.
Oracle disclosed in its proxy statement that Larry Ellison, its executive chair and chief technology officer, had pledged Oracle stock totaling 413 million shares as of Sept. 21. The Wall Street Journal said that was up from 346 million a year earlier.
Oracle said the pledged stock secures personal term loans used to fund outside business ventures, and none of it sits in margin accounts. The board's governance committee reviews the arrangements each quarter. Oracle said the board believes Larry Ellison can repay the loans without using the pledged stock and that the arrangements pose no material risk to the company or its stockholders.
Oracle said in a Form 8-K filing that Larry Ellison canceled his plan to sell Oracle stock on Sept. 12, and that no stock was sold under it. The Wall Street Journal said he had hoped the proceeds would go toward financing his son's takeover. The plan, adopted in June to sell up to 50 million shares worth roughly $7.5 billion, had been set to expire Oct. 24.
The Warner Bros. Discovery deal closed Oct. 6. The Ellison family invested about $17 billion in Skydance's acquisition of the company. Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison called the closing "a historic day." The combined company is now called Skydance Corporation and trades under the ticker SKYD.
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