...scuttlebutt on the real estate superhighway is that tetra-gajillionaire Larry Ellison has tasked a few of his '"people"' to inform a few of the more savvy Real Estates who work the streets of San Francisco's Marina District that the spendy Oracle founder might be willing to drop a yacht-load of money for a few well-located houses that are not currently on the market.
So the rumor goes on the San Fran-centric real estate blog SocketSite, the Real Estates were to provide Mister Ellison's so-called '"people"' with a few names of property owners who "might be willing to accept an offer they can't refuse."
Presumably his (alleged) desire to snatch up properties in the Marina District has something (or everything) to do with San Francisco being the host city for the finals of the America's Cup yacht racing extravaganza, due to storm waters and streets the city for two weeks next September (2013).
We don't know a manhole from a garden house but Your Mama can imagine the yachting aficionado—who already owns a very large and very contemporary mansion with sweeping (if a wee bit obstructed) view of the San Francisco Bay 10 or 12 blocks away in Pacific Heights—wants closer, more convenient access for himself and his VIP guests to the water front, some where along which the Oracle-sponsored racing fleet will be parked and plucked and waxed and/or whatever one does to keep a brutally expensive racing vessel looking like like fast-moving perfection on the water.
Mister Ellison could probably save himself umpteen millions and hassles by offering ludicrous sums of cash to rent their homes for the duration of the regatta (or whatever such yachting festivals are called). But this is a man whose personal property portfolio is easily valued at a quarter billion dollars or more considering the recent rumors he's agreed to pay upwards of half a billion dollars for the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai. Renting is not how this trophy property collecting tech-sector tycoon rolls.