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What's the use of owning a Hawaiian island if you don't even have your own sports team?

The third richest man in America and the sixth richest billionaire in the world, Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison, is interested in bidding on the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) sports and entertainment empire, Reuters reported this morning based on information from two inside sources.

AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anschutz Company, owns stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers NBA franchise, the LA Kings pro hockey team and more than 100 sports and entertainment venues around the world.

Sports executive Andy Dolich told Bloomberg News last month that he expected AEG will hold to its guns and not carve up the sale, although bids are expected to start at $10 billion. Dolich called AEG founder Phil Anschutz and Timmy Leiweke a great management team who were able to "look around the corner" and create a wholly integrated enterprise. He added that he expects the auction to attract global bidders.

The auction is particularly appealing to Ellison because AEG would allow him to buy and relocate a National Football League team to Los Angeles, Reuters reported. Ellison's interest has been described as "preliminary."

Ellsion recently "freed up $4.9 billion of Oracle stock right around the time the AEG sale was announced," according to The Atlantic Wire, telling CNBC it was, "just in case I go shopping and something catches my eye."

Ellison is a self-made billionaire, who started Oracle in 1977 with $1,200. Over the summer he signed a deal to buy 98 percent of the 141 square-foot, inhabited island of Lanai from another billionaire, David Murdoch. The price was estimated at $500 million according to WebProNews.

The auction has piqued the interest of other billionaires, private equity funds, investment funds and sovereign wealth funds, according to Reuters. Other potential bidders include the investment firm Guggenheim Partners LLC and private equity firms such as Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Colony Capital.

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