Larry Ellison's desire for land in Malibu, like the Oracle mogul's other appetites, is insatiable. His $65m purchase of five adjacent lots on the South California township's Carbon Beach was, at the time, the priciest residential transaction in US real estate history. We've mentioned Ellison's plans for exotic Japanese cuisine at one of the two restaurants he's acquired in the area. Now city officials contacted by the LA Times say he's bought a local hotel, the Casa Malibu Inn. "He's buying what he needs to create his little world," one of Ellison's neighbors told the newspaper. Together with other purchases such as a $20m home in a gated development by the Malibu Pier — a temporary pad while he redevelops the Carbon Beach parcel? — the newspaper reckons the profligate software tycoon spent up to $200m in total on his Malibu property binge. Extravagant? A piffling sum compared with the cost of Ellison's Rising Sun, the $250m yacht which the Oracle boss quickly put up for sale when he discovered the gigantic floating palace couldn't use ordinary harbors.