Does David Geffen know about this? Someone else actually bought two lots on his stretch of Carbon Beach in Malibu, and it wasn't Larry Ellison. Sales price: $24.95 million, says the Multiple Listing Service.

For accuracy's sake, we should mention that the lots have houses on them -- good-sized ones too at 3,200 square feet and 2,000 square feet -- but don't expect them to remain standing for long. The unidentified buyer is expected to tear them down in short order and rebuild to his liking. The combined lots total 80 feet of beachfront along what is known as Billionaires Beach.

Has the billionaires' duel now escalated into a full-fledged skirmish with the 22000 block of Pacific Coast Highway as the prize in a battle of the checkbooks?

Until this latest sale, the most recent purchase was a few weeks ago, with Geffen acquiring a 1,400-square-foot house with 45 feet of beachfront on that block for about $10 million. He originally bought that same property in 1996, sold it to Creative Artists Agency head Richard Lovett, who sold it to Peter Morton, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafes. Morton sold it back to Geffen in this most recent transaction. Head spinning yet?

Geffen owns four other properties on the 22000 block and the Malibu Beach Inn just a short walk away. He paid $29 million in 2005 for the hotel and recently completed a major remodel. Speculation is that he has grander ideas for Carbon Beach and one day hopes to run the strip as an exclusive resort for the world's wealthiest patrons.

Then there is Ellison, head of software giant Oracle and named the world's 11th richest man by Forbes magazine. He owns five houses along Carbon Beach -- his are adjacent -- and, in an apparent tit-for-tat with Geffen, bought the 21-room Casa Malibu Inn on Carbon Beach for $20 million.

And then, seemingly out of the blue, along comes yet a third major purchaser along the same block of sand.

Surely, given the price of gas, there must be oil under it.