Paul Allen the 'Accidental Zillionaire'

An anonymous reader writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting story about Paul Allen, "the accidental zillionaire". Allen is the owner of the world's biggest private yacht and a huge landowner in the Seattle area in addition to his traditional accolades of helping to found Microsoft along with several other companies and foundations."

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Allen bought Washington state referendum

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Nader/CutCorpWel fare_Nader.html

Hijacking local democracy

Perhaps nothing illustrates the ruthlessness and shameless power plays of the corporate welfare kings than their extortionate demands for state and local subsidies on threat of picking up and moving elsewhere.

And no case illustrates the hijacking of democratic procedures more clearly than billionaire Paul Allen's buying of an especially-made-for-Allen Washington state referendum to approve $300 million in public subsidies to build a football stadium for his Seattle Seahawks. Mega-billionaire Allen, co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates and one of the richest men in the world, bought the referendum both literally and figuratively.

In a stunningly brazen maneuver, he paid the state of Washington for the costs of running the special referendum election in June 1997. Although later challenged as a violation of the state's constitution, the state Supreme Court upheld the private financing of the election. But even the Supreme Court majority which upheld the constitutionality of the election purchase blanched at its political ramifications. "Troubling questions may arise, such as whether any wealthy entity could persuade the legislature to place a measure on the ballot provided the costs of the election were paid," wrote Justice Barbara Madsen for the majority.

Having paid for the issue to get on the ballot, Allen then waged a $6.3 million campaign-the most expensive in Washington state history-to convince voters to support the $300 million public subsidy to the stadium. He devoted $2.3 million to radio and TV ads. In total, Allen outspent opponents of the referendum by a 42-to-1 margin.

Allen's investment proved just enough: Washington voters, initially opposed by overwhelming numbers to the idea of public funding for the stadium, approved the referendum with a 51 percent majority.

Re:Not a more perfect plan for world domination...

[Anonymous Coward]

last of all: "Allen has been selling his Microsoft shares since he left the company, but still owns more than $3 billion worth.", sounds like somebody started to loose faith in the company there...

Not really. What would you do? A zillion in unrealised P&L as stock and a desire for big boats. I'd sell too - and he's described as having interests outside work - so why not? And I think there's proably a few people with a lot of faith in their organisation but still hold less than $3 billion in stock. Why hold for stock based gains when you've more money than you, your family and probably everyone you know will ever need?

Re:largest yacht

[blosphere]

No, The largest yatch is owned by the Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, the name is 'Platinum'

Allen's boat was designed by the same company btw.

I do think he has the biggest yatch in US

Linky. http://www.bostonboating.com/platinum.htm

Re:FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

Northwest franchises and real estate: Seattle Seahawks NFL football (First and Goal, Stadium construction company, includes all proceeds from new stadium, exhibition hall, and related revenues); Portland Trailblazers NBA basketball (Rose Garden Arena); South Lake Union Seaport Park redevelopment; Formal Naval Reserve Base (a 12 acre, $35 million park); Lake Union (223,000 square feet total ownership, $400 million total development costs so far); Quendall Landing in Renton (68 acres mixed business and residential real estate, $500 million to develop so far); Experience Music Project; Cinerama; Union Station & surrounding real estate; and leases extensive space at Smith Tower. International real estate: The Hospital--an Art space in Camden, England. Radio: KEXP (Seattle, non-commercial, underwriting agreement with Univ. of Washington); OneOnOne Sports (radio syndication network, also owns three commercial radio stations in Chicago); and two commercial radio stations in Portland. Charity and other organizations: Clear Blue sky--Production company for Indy films; The Paul G. Allen Foundation for Medical Research; The Allen Foundation for the Arts; The Allen Foundation for Music; The Paul G. Allen Forest Protection Foundation; and The Paul G. Allen Virtual Education Foundation. Cash: $28 billion in assets; $1.04 billion in public funds. Investments through Vulcan Ventures (Full or partial ownership): 800.com; Allegiance Telecom Inc.; Aluentive; Apex Learning; ARI Network Services; BOPS; Caspian Networks; Charter Communications; click2learn.com; Colorado Microdisplay; Command Audio; Cyber Source; Dick's Clothing and Sporting Goods; Diego Broadband Inc.; Dreamworks SKG; Drugstore.com; e-Media, LLC; e-Steel; Edison Schools; Encryptix, Inc.; eStyle, Inc.; Fantasma Networks; Fatbrain.com; Genomix; Go2Net Inc.; HarvardNet Inc.; Health Answers Inc.; High Speed Access Corp.; IFILM; imandi.com; Installations Inc.; inviso; iVast; IVT; Kestrel Solutions; LiquidAudio Inc. Magis Networks; Metricom Inc.; myplay Inc.; NetSchools Corp.; Northpoint Communications; oncology.com; OnePage Inc.; Oxygen Media; Paraform Inc.; RCN Corportation; Replay TV Inc.; RioPort Inc.; Rocket Network Inc. Sandbox.com; ScienceMedia; Sharewave Inc.; Stamps.com; Structural GenomiX; TechTV; Terra Stor; The Sporting News; Transmeta; Triscend Corporation; Tularik Inc.; USA Networks Inc.; Versata Inc.; Vulcan Northwest Inc.; Vulcan Ventures Inc.; Wavetrace; Wink Comm; and Xcyte Therapies.

Re:What is a zillionaire?

[ceeam]

Since early 1980's? Probably they knew that. But in early 1970's, Allen and Gates were just a couple of nerdy students, sharing a belief that the future is in household computers.

And I guess having very rich parents with "connections" helps too.

Correction

[word munger]

Allen and Gates went to the Lakeside School, not the nonexistent Lakewood School. Whatever.

Re:largest yacht

[JeremyALogan]

Here's a link to a page with lots and lots of pictures of Paul's boat, "Octopus" (outside pics only). If you poke around the site a bit you can also find a page of pictures for the "Platinum" as well as several other ships that are larger than Octopus.

Some other interesting things that apparently came with it:

• Tender - 63ft "Man of War"
• Submarine - Nomad 1000 (world's first luxury submarine)
• Helicopter - Sirkorsky S76

Re:Interesting

[metlin]

Wow.

Only on Slashdot would you have a businessman of a technology company being compared to a pimp, a smuggler and a murderer.

What the hell are you talking about?! How many people has Microsoft (or Bill Gates) killed? Does he own a freakin' whorehouse or a casino? The only thing he has done is conduct a business the way every business is conducted - to maximize profit.

Microsoft is a business entity. They are a corporation. Like every other corporation out there, their purpose is to enhance the shareholder value, period. That does not make them any more or less evil. They just are that way. And they are giving back to society, a lot more than most companies ever have.

You know something? I would *much* rather have Microsoft profit in billions and spend money towards helping something more important than code, like AIDS or Cancer, than feel bad for a two penny company that could not take care of itself. Business is like the animal kingdom, there are predators and preys and it is not good or evil, merely the survival of the fittest.

If you have a good idea and good management, you can surivive. Look at Google, they are the perfect example.

Stop making ridiculous comparisons. While Microsoft maybe a ruthless business, they are contributing a whole lot to society. I would much rather have that. And you, my good sir, what have you done to the well being of the society lately? Helped cure anything?

Bloody trolls.

Re:IBM didn't make a difference; Compaq did

[MetaKey]

Actually, IBM published the BIOS openly. You could purchase it directly from IBM for $60. It arrived in a nice 3 ring binder. It was very well documented and the actual assembler source code was included. I now deeply regret having disposed of my copy - probably 20 years ago...

Re:His hompage

[DigiShaman]

Even worse, I cannot use the back-button in IE. It's an ego-webpage-trap.

Re:He's a Virus Developer! I knew it!

[VP]

Hodgkin's disease is not a viral infection, it is a type of cancer...

Re:IBM didn't make a difference; Compaq did

[ignavus]

"What really made the PC ubiquitously popular was Compaq's reverse-engineering of the IBM BIOS."

Um, wasn't it *Phoenix Technologies* that reverse engineered the IBM BIOS, i.e. produced an IBM-compatible BIOS so that other manufacturers could make IBM clones?