Maybe he's just got the soul of a collector.

What's a guy gotta to do get a little peace and quiet in Tinseltown? One tech billionaire isn't taking any chances. The L.A. Times reports that Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO and seafarer, has snapped up almost two dozen pieces of property in sunny Malibu. This is in addition to his ownership of the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

Hey, in the New Digital Age (tm), privacy is the most valuable commodity there is.

According to the Times:

Ellison has spent an estimated $200 million to $250 million through at least nine purchases, in one case of multiple homes, on coveted Carbon Beach. Along the way, the software tycoon dropped millions on a wooded estate near the Franciscan friars in gated Serra Retreat. He also has bought an inland tennis club, Casa Malibu Inn and coastal restaurant property.

What, you don't own your own tennis club? Poseur.

While Mr. Ellison declined to comment to the Times, his real estate agent explained the appeal of this particular slice of country: "There are only so many seats in the front row,"  he said, adding, "If you take the best section and the most prime property, that's inherently a great investment."

At least Mr. Ellison isn't buying up landlocked desert property miles from anywhere. Anyone who saw Superman knows how that ends.

[h/t Register]

(Photo: SugarDaddie.com)

Woodside, California is a quaint, wealthy suburb in San Mateo County, situated about 20 minutes from the tech hub of Palo Alto. Because of its close proximity to big tech companies like Google and Facebook, many wealthy entrepreneurs (including Larry Ellison!) call Woodside home. And now, because of its plethora of eligible rich men, online dating startup SugarDaddie.com, which unites "wealthy, desirable and attractive people," has offered the town $11.65 million to officially change its name to SugarDaddie.com, USA.

It's not the worst idea we've ever heard.

SugarDaddie, which has been around since 2003, wants to create the world's first dating site-sponsored city. Unfortunately, it's having some trouble finding a taker. Sugar Land, Texas already turned down its $5 million offer, and $11.65 million is probably chump change to the tech billionaires settled in Woodside. ($11.65 million is what Captain Larry E. calls "loose change.")

If Woodside accepted SugarDaddie's proposal, they would also have to agree to the following terms, according to NBC.com:

- All official government correspondence, selected institutions and street signs changed to reflect the new name. This includes renaming the Town Hall, town council, public library, annual art fair and all city websites.

-- Local government officials must present Steven Pasternack, CEO of SugarDaddie.com, with a key to the town in a formal ceremony.

-- And last but certainly not least, a statue near Town Hall must be built of Hugh Hefner or another public figure who best represents the sugar-daddy lifestyle.

Has SugarDaddie tried presenting this offer to a town in Florida? Seems like they'd probably be up for it.

(Photo: Elite Daily)

Possible sailing cheater and Hawaiian island owner Larry Ellison has added a new item to his collection of things you will never be able to afford, according to Skift: the Hawaiian airline Island Air is now an Ellison possession.

Island Air is a small airline that provides flights between the islands of Hawaii, but we assume the Oracle founder will also be using it as his own private fleet of jets. If you were a kazillionaire, wouldn't you?

Megan Ellison (Photo: IMDB)

What'd you get for the holidays? Maybe some nice new video games? Perhaps your parents heard you talking about "personal betterment via technology" and got you a Nike Fuel Band?

Whatever you received, it was certainly not as good as what Oracle founder Larry Ellison gifted his children last year: daughter Megan Ellison used some of his money to win a bidding war for the rights to the Terminator franchise, with agreements from Justin Lin to direct and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in it.

How's that iPhone 5 looking now, huh? (Sorry, mom and dad.)

Now, Business Insider reports that the Ellison spawn may be prepping to finally do something with the rights. Megan has tapped her brother David Ellison to serve as a coproducer on the film, inching ever closer towards a Terminator reboot.

We wonder if this is all just a cover up to diminish the negative attention heaped on Mr. Ellison after his sailing team got caught in that cheating scandal.

Come on, that's practically a pirate flag! (Photo: flickr.com/portofsandiego)

When last we heard from maritime enthusiast Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder had just bought himself the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Now the San Jose Mercury News reports that his sailing franchise, Oracle Racing, is accused of attempting to gain an edge by espionage.

Mr. Ellison took home the America's Cup back in 2010, which means he basically owns the franchise. If another team nabs the trophy next year, into the drink goes his attempt to turn it into a television event. But even if there wasn't money at stake, we get the sense Mr. Ellison doesn't like to lose.

Now, the team from Italy claims that Oracle Team USA! USA! USA! "sent a spy in an inflatable boat to take pictures of its 72-foot catamaran during training runs last month on the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand." That's verboten: As per the competition's rules, you're supposed to stay 200 meters away. (Wait a second, we thought this was the America's Cup. Why are they using the metric system?!)

However, it seems that sailing is a more exciting sport than one might assume, and cloak-and-dagger maneuvering is actually all just part of the competitive process. The Mercury News says:

"It's part of the nature of this competition," said Dyer Jones, an America's Cup historian and CEO of the America's Cup Hall of Fame. "You get in the other guy's head."

Or, as even the spokesperson for the America's Cup Event Authority put it: "All is fair in love and war. That is what it boils down to."

A sport practically built on covert ops? We're shocked such a thing would appeal to a disruptive billionaire!

This hotdog cost more than your first year at college. (Photo: ZPub)

Eccentric Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who--like his spirit animal, George Clooney in The Descendants--recently bought his own Hawaiian island just for the hell of it, now has his eye on a $10 billion entertainment group. $10B? That's chump change for America's third richest man, but okay, we'll go with it.

Sources told Reuters that Mr. Ellison is interested in potentially bidding on the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which recently went up for auction. AEG owns entertainment venues like the Staples Center and the Home Depot Center, as well as a slew of soccer and basketball teams. According to Reuters, Mr. Ellison's primary interest in the move lies in the possibility of relocating an NFL team to Los Angeles.

Mr. Ellison recently cashed out on some Oracle shares to the tune of $4.3 billion and told CNBC that the money was for "just in case I go shopping and something catches my eye," because he is a motherfucking baller.

We eagerly await Mr. Ellison's future purchase of that new fly ass diamond planet.

The new Winklevoss pad. (Photo: TMZ)

As residents of Silicon Alley (a clever knockoff of California's original Silicon Valley), we don't have much room to mock other cities around the country for attempting to claim a piece of the tech pie all for themselves. But we couldn't help but notice in a Wall Street Journal real estate feature that Los Angeles--despite the fact that it's already well-known for being the entertainment capital of the world--is still trying to make "Silicon Beach" a thing. SMH.

The Journal reports that tech bigwigs like Peter Thiel, Mars enthusiast Elon Musk, Romney critic and investor Ray Lane, Matt Jacobson, Facebook's stylish head of market development, the Winklevii and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison have all recently plunked down millions of dollars for vast palatial compounds in the land of smog and nose jobs. The newly blurry line between tech, media and entertainment is enticing young techies with money to burn to ditch the fog for beachfront stunners.

Ever since Google opened its Venice Beach headquarters, home prices in the area have skyrocketed--despite the fact that tech stocks, on the whole, are kind of tanking. And apparently tech titans are much more annoying to work with than even your typical home buyer. "They will challenge your knowledge of the market. And only if you pass will they trust you," one broker said, exercising great restraint by not using the term "know-it-all."

Of course, there's another reason besides the good weather that has "Silicon Beach" filling up.

"A lot of these guys are young, they have cashed out, they are bachelors, they like to party," one real estate broker told the Journal. "And let's be honest, the partying in Hollywood is way better than in Silicon Valley."

Ah, it really is 1999 all over again, isn't it?

Artist's rendering. (Photo: flickr.com/rossaroni)

What happens when a scruffy bunch of startup scamps move into a posh neighborhood? Why, hijinks ensue, naturally.

See, San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood has something called "Billionaire's Row," where tech elites like Larry Ellison live. However, Businessweek reports that there is one mansion inhabited by an unusual crop of folks: not merely rentors, but entrepreneurs in their 30s, working on startup ideas. Nature took its course:

"'It’s like an incubator,' says Ryan Turri, a resident and aspiring beef jerky magnate. 'You’re up at two in the morning and bouncing ideas off three or four guys who are all smart.'"

Unfortunately for the purposes of entertainment value, it sounds like the proceedings are just a little G-rated:

The neighbors have raised a few grumbles. One party got too raucous, and there was the time some folks from the house put on tuxes and crashed a party at the Gettys.

Still, beats the hell out of another Silicon Valley reality TV show.

George as Captain Larry, god willing. (Photo: IMDB)

Oracle CEO and New York Times-approved eligible bachelor Larry Ellison bought 98 percent of the Hawaiian island Lanai a couple months ago, making him the proud owner of two Four Seasons resorts, a solar farm, a pair of championship golf courses, the firstborn of every female citizen and 10 grass-skirt-bearing virgins.

Thus the Times sent one intrepid reporter down to Hawaii to ask the residents of Lanai how they feel about their new bearded overlord. And their passionate, tension-filled responses sound not unlike the rough draft of next summer's feel-good land baron dramedy.

Take, for example, the island's fraught history with its previous billionaire owners, who turned the place into a pineapple plantation and then a failed tourist experiment. One feisty resident, Sally Kaye, referenced the predicament in an open letter to Mr. Ellison:

She described Lanai as an island that had “been owned and exploited by one really rich guy or another” for 150 years and whose residents live in a “medieval lord-of-the-manor system of control.”

All the class oppression of a period piece, only with more relatable outfits!

Ms. Kaye is the wife of one of the opponents of the latest scheme to save the economically troubled island: a field of 45-foot turbine windmills so that Lanai can produce energy to sell to nearby Oahu. The windmills will be built over the wilderness of the island's beautiful bluffs and beaches so, boom, you got your Avatar-esque environmental anxiety right there, not to mention the family drama.

“It’s awful, just awful,” said Robin Kaye, one of the opponents, sweeping his arm across the land where the windmills would rise, a tumble of otherworldly rock formations framed by views across the Pacific to Maui and Molokai. “There are families who won’t talk to each other anymore. It has really ripped us up.”

Early signs point to Mr. Ellison, a yachting enthusiast, playing the role of benevolent benefactor, captivated by the 141 square acres he just added to his portfolio.

Mr. Ellison’s associates describe him as drawn by the romantic mystery of a secluded island and said it was unlikely that he would embark on any project that might alter its character. His assistants have told people here that he intends to do a major renovation on the two resorts, suggesting that he sees the island’s future in tourism, and described this as “a passion purchase.”

Then all you need is a comely native love interest to neg him into becoming a better man by preserving her childhood home. Our money is on Rashida Jones.

Mr. Ellison (Photo: Wikimedia)

New York Times notable tech bachelor Larry Ellison has purchased 98 percent of Lanai, Hawaii's largest island. Hawaii's governor cited Mr. Ellison's "passion for nature," as a motivating factor in island ownership. [Guardian]

Peter Thiel's plan is already paying off! James Proud, one of the fellows from Mr. Thiel's recently-announced class, sold his company GigLocator to Peter Shapiro, the owner of Williamsburg's Brooklyn Bowl. [TechCrunch]

LinkedIn faces class action lawsuit demanding $5 million in damages for not safeguarding users' (terrible, insecure) passwords. [The Inquirer]

Steve Wozniak showed his support for Megaupload by dropping by Kim Dotcom's New Zealand manse. [CNET]