homesmillbrae.com » Larry Ellison

San Francisco Bay Area Billionaires: Who’s The Richest Of Them All? (PHOTOS)

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:53:10 +0000

The San Francisco Bay Area’s economy is booming. And, if the local billionaires sitting atop Forbes’ recently published list of the richest people in the world is any indication, a lot of that is going into the pockets of the region’s one percent.

While Silicon Valley tech royalty predictably dominates the list, there’s also a peppering of other industries, from real estate to entertainment.

Check out this slideshow of some of the richest people in the Bay Area, and visit Forbes to see the full list:

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Larry Ellison

The Oracle-founding, yacht-racing, Hawaiian island-buying college dropout is worth a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-ellison/”$43 billion/a.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Have you guys heard of this company called The Googles? Its headquarters are going to be the setting of that a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/the-internship-trailer_n_2679936.html”Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson movie/a? No? Well, the two guys who founded it are worth a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-page/”somewhere in the neighborhood/a of a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/sergey-brin/”$22 billion/a.
Mark Zuckerberg

Last year, Facebook’s “accidental billionaire” Mark Zuckerberg a href=”http://sfist.com/2012/12/19/mark_zuckerberg_makes_500_million_d.php”donated $500 million/a to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, but he’s got a lot to spare–he’s still worth a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/”$13.8 billion/a.
Laurene Powell Jobs

The widow of Apple visionary Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs is the richest woman in Silicon Valley with a net worth of a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/laurene-powell-jobs/”$10.7 billion/a.
Pierre Omidyar

In addition to founding eBay, Pierre Omidyar is also known for his innovative philanthropic investment firm Omydiar Network…and for having a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/pierre-omidyar/”$8.7 billion/a in the bank.
Eric Schmidt

While lagging behind founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt isn’t doing too poorly for himself with a net worth of a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/eric-schmidt/”$8.2 billion/a.
Charles Johnson

South Bay mutual fund kingpin Charles Johnson, who is the chairman of Franklin Resources, has a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-johnson/”$5.7 billion/a in the bank.
David Duffield

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded both PeopleSoft and enterprise software firm Workday, Duffield raked in a big haul this year after the latter company’s recent IPO and more than doubled his net worth to a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/david-duffield/”$4.8 billion/a.
Charles Schwab

Even though Charles Schwab no longer runs the brokerage firm that turned him into a household name, “Chuck” is still wortha href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-schwab/” $4.3 billion/a.
Gordon Moore

Not only did Gordon Moore cofound Intel and a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore’s_law”coin his very own eponymous law/a, but he’s also worth a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/gordon-moore/”$4.1 billion/a.
George Roberts

Atherton-based leveraged buyout titan George Roberts has a net worth of a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/george-roberts/”$4.1 billion/a.
George Lucas

Despite (or actually due to) the sale of his company to Disney last year, the force is still strong with Star Wars mastermind George Lucas to the tune of a href=”Also the http://www.forbes.com/profile/george-lucas/”$3.9 billion/a.
John Sobrato

Tech companies like Apple and Yahoo may live online, but they also need office space–and that’s where John Sobrato comes in. Sobrato’s commercial real estate empire has netted him a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-a-sobrato/”$3.9 billion/a.
Dustin Moskovitz

Being roommates with Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard had its benefits for Dustin Moskovitz, who was Facebook’s third employee before splitting in 2008 to found online collaboration software firm Asana. He’s currently worth a href=”http://www.forbes.com/profile/dustin-moskovitz/”$3.8 billion/a.

Also on HuffPost:

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/san-francisco-bay-area-billionaires_n_2808136.html

Silicon Valley real estate stunner: Woodside estate sells for $117.5 million – Tri

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:34:11 +0000

WOODSIDE — A legendary investor’s sprawling estate here has sold for $117.5 million, one of the highest prices ever for a residential property in the U.S.

The sale price eclipses the previous Silicon Valley record of $100 million paid for a Los Altos Hills mansion by Russian investor Yuri Milner in 2011 and comes amid a red-hot market for luxury home sales in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula.

The private sale was closed in November between the owner, private equity investor Tully M. Friedman, and an undisclosed buyer represented by SV Projects, according to public records.

And illustrating the steps the parties took to keep it quiet, the documentary transfer tax of $129,250 was written in pencil in a black, three-ring binder marked “Separate Tax Statement” that is kept behind a clerk’s desk at the San Mateo County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder’s Office in Redwood City. The county allows people filing deeds to request that the tax appear on a separate document. A member of the public who wants to see the tax must go to the office and ask for the binder.

The Woodside mansion on Mountain Home Road is in a neighborhood populated by Silicon Valley power brokers like Larry Ellison, whose home is less than a mile away. Even modest houses are commanding prices of more than $1 million in nearby communities that are closer to the Facebooks and Googles of the valley.

“There’s

enormous pressure on housing between San Carlos and Cupertino,” said Wendy McPherson, who manages Coldwell Banker’s Woodside, Portola Valley and Menlo Park offices. “You cannot buy anything in Menlo Park for less than $1 million.”

In Atherton, the number of days to sell a home has dropped 72 percent in the past 24 months, she said, and there are 25 new homes being built there by developers.

The estate that sold in Woodside is a neoclassical structure that was designed by Virginia architect Allan Greenberg. His website describes it as “sitting in an elaborate hilltop garden” and “reflecting the strong Palladian tradition in the United States.” The main structure is connected to wings via structures known as “hyphens” in architecture. The home also features a large, elliptical garden room, a pool and a 1,117-square-foot colonnaded pool house overlooking wooded hills.

Woodside planning records show the town approved construction in January 2001 of a 7,500-square-foot main residence with a 3,245-square-foot basement, and an underground four-car garage. There was also a 780-square-foot detached library and a 715-square-foot “retreat” building. A tennis court, extensive landscaping and the relocation of an existing two-story caretaker’s cottage were also planned.

Friedman could not be reached for comment. A founding partner of Hellman Friedman, a San Francisco private investment firm, Friedman now is chief executive officer of Friedman, Fleischer and Lowe, a private equity firm in San Francisco.

A Stanford University undergraduate and Harvard Law School graduate, Friedman is a past president of the San Francisco Opera Association and is a director of the Telluride Foundation.

The sale comes as Silicon Valley luxury home sales surged 54 percent in December, according to residential brokerage Coldwell Banker, which sources said represented the buyer. The company had no comment.

A total of 113 homes sold for more than $1.5 million in December, up from 73 the previous year, according to Coldwell Banker. The median sale price that month was just over $2 million. A 3,200-square-foot home in Palo Alto sold for $6.75 million.

The sale was first disclosed by the website SFLuxe, which said it was the second highest price ever paid for a home in the U.S. But the higher price was for a 124,000-acre ranch and farm in Montana with 5,000 head of cattle.

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419 Follow him on Twitter.com/petecarey.

Article source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_22453823/silicon-valley-real-estate-stunner-woodside-estate-sells

With America’s Cup on the horizon, Southern Marin real estate market could heat up – Marin Independent

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 06:49:40 +0000

Click photo to enlarge

LJ Blake is hoping his hillside home in Sausalito that offers sweeping views of the bay will be of interest to well-heeled individuals who want to check out America’s Cup races.

“We just want to get as much as we can for it for as long a period as possible,” he said, with a laugh. “What are they estimating? A billion dollars coming to the Bay Area as part of America’s Cup? We want to stick our fingers in there and get just a bit of that.”

The America’s Cup match will pit the American defender — Internet mogul Larry Ellison’s team — against a foreign challenger on San Francisco Bay in a best-of-nine series set for Sept. 7-22, 2013. The Louis Vuitton Cup, which will determine the challenger, has been scheduled for July 13 through Sept. 1, 2013, also on San Francisco Bay. Travelers from around the world are expected to come to Marin and the Bay Area for the event — and they’ll need places to stay for weeks on end.

As the America’s Cup starts preliminary events in August and October this year, property owners in Southern Marin are getting serious about renting out their homes to those who follow the yachting series.

All the activity has not gone unnoticed by Sausalito city officials, who may look to regulate rentals in the city when they meet Tuesday.

With the races expected to pump $1.4 billion into the Bay Area, property owners see opportunity.

Blake would normally rent his home at 212 Fourth St. for

$7,000 a month. But he is hoping to at least double that for the America’s Cup.

“We could be in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Sausalito real estate agent Charlie Martin said some homes could go for three to five times what they might normally fetch. Martin and two partners started the real estate rental company Rezlux to cater to those who might want to rent for the America’s Cup.

“We are starting to get inquiries from homeowners,” he said. “We think people coming in will want to have a home to themselves rather than stay at a hotel.”

While Martin said there likely will be a large spectrum of homes offered, it will be the higher-end properties that will be most desirable.

“We will be trying to accommodate the high-end visitors, and a home will probably have to have special and unique qualities,” he said.

To make the experience a little more ritzy for renters, Martin is offering chef and concierge service. The company is getting inquires about rentals in Sausalito and Southern Marin, he said.

Many of the more desirable properties being rented are in San Francisco, but Marin should see some action as well, said Eric Baird, president of Relisto, a San Francisco firm also offering rental homes for America’s Cup.

“You still have premium homes in Sausalito, Tiburon and Belvedere that people will be interested in,” Baird said. “Even though those homes don’t put you right on top of the action they are still right there and just a ferry ride away. I think there is a lot of excitement out there for this.”

Sausalito real estate agent Sherrie Faber, however, is not so sure the demand is really there.

“Unless you have a great view of the race course, I don’t think people will seek out homes,” she said. “A lot of people will be coming in their yachts and staying in the higher-end hotels or maybe on the west shore of Belvedere. A few homes in Marin may be rented that have the panache that these travelers are looking for. But most want to be close to the action in San Francisco.”

People are expected to come to Marin for the races. As many as 11,500 people a day could line the shores of Southern Marin to watch the America’s Cup on race weekends, according to an environmental impact report on the ritzy yacht race prepared by the city of San Francisco.

Sausalito is expected to see the most visitors in Marin for the race — 5,000 during peak periods on the weekends. Another 3,500 people are expected to come to Fort Baker, the Marin Headlands and other areas just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Tiburon and Belvedere are expected to see 1,200 people a day during the race on weekends.

Sausalito city officials are looking at how to address potential impacts to the city. While there may be some hardships, they also realize there is a chance to cash in on the event from affluent yachting fans who want to spend and rent in the town. At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, council members will look at new vacation rental regulations.

“With the pending America’s Cup, staff anticipates an increase in tourism and local hotels may not have the capacity to accommodate the visitors’ lodging demand,” reads a city report on the subject.

Noting the city can only offer up a little more than 100 rooms in hotels, the city is proposing to temporarily allow for rentals for fewer than 30 days in residential areas including arks and houseboats. These short-term rents are currently prohibited in all residential areas.

The rentals would only be allowed during race periods. Property owners would have to pay for a $283 permit to rent their homes. Properties would need to be rented for at least seven days.

Mayor Mike Kelly wants to check the pulse of the community on the issue.

“We have to move slowly and carefully on this and see what the residents and business community, including the hoteliers, think about it,” he said. “We will see if people find it favorable. I’m sure the community will let us know what they think.”

Contact Mark Prado via email at mprado@marinij.com

RENTALS DISCUSSION

The Sausalito City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday to discuss short-term residential rentals related to the America’s Cup races. The meeting will be in City Hall at 420 Litho St.

Article source: http://www.marinij.com/sausalito/ci_20814635/americas-cup-horizon-southern-marin-real-estate-market

Slow Fundraising For The America’s Cup Could Cost San Francisco

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:23:59 +0000

When Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison was selling San Francisco on the benefits of hosting the 2013 America’s Cup, the city was assured that the internationally renowned yacht race would bring in over a billion dollars in revenue into the Bay Area at little to no cost to city government. For San Francisco taxpayers, a group notorious weary of ponying up public funds for private sporting events (the beloved San Francisco Giants couldn’t even get the city to shell out for their fancy, new stadium), it seemed like a dream situation–the opportunity to watch the world’s greatest yacht race in person without needing to travel and having the same cadre of millionaires who pushed for the race in the first place pick up the tab. What could go wrong?

There was just the tiny, little issue of the $12 million in fees the city is supposed to pay this year for environmental planning and state/federal permitting. While the city is on the hook for these fees, the America’s Cup Organizing Committee agreed to fully reimburse all the costs. The problem is that the committee is, reports the Ex, significantly behind in its fundraising and, if things don’t pick up soon, the city will be footing the bill out of its general fund–money that’s supposed to pay for everything from police to road construction.

While the committee has thus far raised a mere $2 million, organizers claim that they’ll be able to gather the rest with ease after the organization is granted tax-exempt status, which Executive Director Kyri McClellan expects to receive in August. Without tax exempt status, argues McClellan, many of the race’s wealthy supporters were uncomfortable making big donations without getting the requisite tax write-off. “I have every confidence we will meet our obligations in the host-city agreement,” she told the Ex.

Depending an organization’s complexity, gaining tax exempt status can take between 3 months to just over a year.

If the tax exempt statues is granted, then the effective day relates back to the date of the formation of the organization–meaning that donations made before the tax exempt status was officially granted would retroactively become tax exempt after the fact.

Why the America’s Cup Organizing Committee hasn’t been exploiting this is unclear. Either backers didn’t feel confident about the eventual granting of tax exempt status or organizers simply felt confident they could raise $12 million at the drop of a hat.

If the committee doesn’t meet its fundraising obligations to the city on time, San Francisco is technically able to pull out of the deal, however the possibility of that actually happening is extremely unlikely.

“If they don’t pay and the city lets them get away with it,” the race’s most high profile critic former Supervisor Chris Daly tells the Appeal, “then they’re just being little bitches.”

Requests for comment from the race’s organizers were not returned at publication time.

That said, it’s not out of the question that the committee could raise the needed funds almost instantly–it’s a veritable Who’s Who of San Francisco high society. The committee is comprised, among others, of William J. Clinton Foundation Director Doug Band, Gap heir Bob Fisher, banjo-picking private equity billionaire Warren Hellman and real estate magnate Mark Buell.

The effort even has Dede Wilsey behind it. Her Wilseyness is the type of legendary fundraiser capable of generating $10 million while taking a nap. Ellison, the effort’s main figurehead, is the sixth richest man in the world.

Having so many deep-pocketed individuals on their team is going to be crucial because the overall cost of the race to the city has been budgeted at $32 million, all of which the committee has pledged to cover. Outside of what it owes to the city, committee is planning on raising a grand total of $270 million to cover all of the necessary infrastructure improvements. That’s in addition to $86 million in rent-free leases the city has granted Ellison for properties along the waterfront.

As originally pitched to the city, the bill for the race was significantly higher. A report prepared by the Budget Analysis Office, at Daly’s bequest, found estimated the cost at $128 million with a mere $22 million coming back to city coffers as increased tax revenue.

As a consequence of the report, the city’s initial plan to create a massive complex in Mission Bay was significantly scaled back and moved to the northwest quadrant of the city–saving San Francisco millions in the process.

Ellison’s sailing team, BMW Oracle Racing, won the last America’s Cup held in Valencia, Spain in 2010. Next time, he’ll have home court advantage.

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Article source: http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/06/slow-fundraising-for-the-americas-cup-could-cost-the-city.php

Larry Ellison sues neighbor for blocking Bay views

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:25:03 +0000

Larry Ellison sues neighbor for blocking Bay views

Too bad the neighbors of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Bay Area based Oracle Corp., don’t have any ties to the Julia Butterfly Hill or the four Berkeley tree sitters, who spent 649 days living on the trees to protest their planned destruction. They may wish they did, now that a lawsuit brought on by Larry Ellison is about to hit the courts.

Larry Ellison, who is the fifth richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $39.5 billion, is well known for his taste in real estate. He spent millions and several years developing his Japanese inspired, Zen compound down in Woodside. His home in the city, appropriately located in Pacific Heights, is over 10,000 square feet, with 5 bedrooms and commands grand, sweeping views of the Bay. Purchased back in 1988 for $3.9 million, he’s now suing his neighbors for letting their trees get too tall and obstructing his views.

WSJ.com

The trees and Bay view Larry Ellison is suing over

The owners of the trees, Bernard and Jane Von Bothmer, became Larry’s neighbors back in 2004 when they purchased their home that is just down slope from his house. He had once offered $15 million to buy their property, which they purchased for $6.9 million, but they rejected. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Larry has hired an attorneys specializing in tree disputes and is claiming loss of natural light and views in his suit against his neighbors.

The court date follows a lawsuit Mr. Ellison filed last June alleging he will suffer “irreparable injury” from lost property value if the court doesn’t make the Von Bothmers cut their trees in order to “restore Plaintiff’s views and sunlight.”

Disputes about trees and views in the city between homeowners are surprisingly not that uncommon. The city of San Francisco has specific guidelines that owners are asked to follow with tree disputes.

In 1988, the city passed a “Tree Dispute Resolution Ordinance” requiring a complainant to seek “initial reconciliation” with the tree owner, file a “tree claim” if that doesn’t work and, if necessary, submit the dispute to “binding arbitration.” If all else fails, the dispute can go to court.

It appears now that all else has failed. In the court deposition, the Von Bothmers claimed that they have caught workers in their trees preparing to cut branches, while Larry says if that is true, they weren’t working for him. This is just one of the multiple claims by both sides over the trees. With trial set to start June 6th, we’ll soon learn if Larry will get his views back or not.

Posted By: Jenny Pisillo (Email) | May 31 2011 at 03:50 PM

Listed Under: Bay Area

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=90074

homesmillbrae.com » Larry Ellison

San Francisco Bay Area Billionaires: Who’s The Richest Of Them All? (PHOTOS)

Larry Ellison

Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Mark Zuckerberg

Laurene Powell Jobs

Pierre Omidyar

Eric Schmidt

Charles Johnson

David Duffield

Charles Schwab

Gordon Moore

George Roberts

George Lucas

John Sobrato

Dustin Moskovitz

Silicon Valley real estate stunner: Woodside estate sells for $117.5 million – Tri

With America’s Cup on the horizon, Southern Marin real estate market could heat up – Marin Independent

Slow Fundraising For The America’s Cup Could Cost San Francisco

Larry Ellison sues neighbor for blocking Bay views

Larry Ellison sues neighbor for blocking Bay views