Larry Ellison Tightens Grip on `Billionaire Beach'

Larry Ellison, a computer multi-billionaire who just bought a Hawaiian Island, has raised Malibu eyebrows with the purchase of his 11th property on "Billionaire's Beach," it was reported Saturday.

The $36.9 million purchase is the highest sale in Malibu this year. For the money, Ellison got a compound with a total of nine bedrooms, 151 feet of beach frontage, and a copper-roofed screening room overlooking the Malibu Pier to the one side, Catalina Island in the middle, and the Santa Monica Bay arcing to the left.

Ellison, 64, is the third-richest man in the world with a worth of $41 billion, according to Forbes. He is founder of the Oracle Corp. and last summer bought 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lana'i in June for about $550 million.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Ellison bought his ninth beachfront house in Malibu when he bought the compound of former Yahoo chief Terry Semel and his wife Jane on the beach, which is formally called Carbon Beach.

The house sits amid Ellison's other eight Malibu beachfront houses, and just east of a pair of ocean-front restaurants that Ellison purchased, demolished and rebuilt. One former cafe has reopened as the new location for the Nobu Malibu sushi restaurant, the other is still being remodeled for an undisclosed tenant.

Ellison has also won City of Malibu approval to convert an old piece of agricultural land in the Malibu Civic Center area into a parking lot for his employees and restaurant workers, who are shuttled down to Carbon Beach.

The Times reported that Ellison's purchase of the Semel house reduces the number of billionaires on Billionaire's Beach by one. His neighbors include multi-millionaires David Geffen, Jamie McCourt and Michael Milken.