Larry Ellison borrowed against his shares to fund his son's Warner bid (opens the source in a new tab)
- WSJ reports Larry Ellison dropped a plan to sell Oracle stock and instead widened loans from several big banks, pledging shares in Oracle, Tesla, SpaceX and Paramount Skydance to help fund his son David's Warner Bros. takeover.
- Oracle says 413 million of his shares, worth around $58bn, now back his personal debts, more than a year earlier.
- Borrowing lets the very rich keep their stock and avoid locking in taxable gains, a strategy dubbed "buy, borrow and die". Oracle's board says he can repay without selling pledged shares.
- 413m
- Oracle shares pledged
- ~$58bn
- value of pledged stock
Why it matters It shows how the very rich fund deals with debt rather than sales, keeping control and deferring tax in ways ordinary investors rarely can.
Other side Pledged stock can force selling if prices slump, but Oracle reviews the pledges every quarter and most of his stake is not tied to borrowing.