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Lou Struett and Mimi Hart of MagTek, a maker of card-swiping devices. |
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WEALTHIEST ANGELENOS |
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| FEELING AT HOME - Los Angeles is changing its profile from vacation spot to place of residence and investment for the world’s wealthy. |
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| FOREIGN PRESENCE - Los Angeles is changing its profile from vacation spot to place of residence and investment for the world’s wealthy. |
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| LOCAL FEEL - Some of the international players now in Los Angeles. |
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| MONEY MAGNET - L.A.’s weather and glamour have long pulled in the rich from around the globe. |
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| MOVEMENT - The subprime fallout has pinched some wallets, impacting the 2008 rankings. |
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| VALUATION - The subprime fallout has pinched some wallets, impacting the 2008 rankings. |
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| PROFILES - The top 20 Wealthiest Angelenos' profiles are listed bleow, here are numbers 21 - 50. |
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| SUMNER REDSTONE - Weak ad spending and the prospect of a recession battered media mogul Sumner Redstone, who owns controlling stakes in CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. Since last summer their stock price has declined 31 percent and 6 percent respectively. |
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| ELI BROAD - L.A.’s best-known venture philanthropist saw the value of his approximately 2,000-piece art collections appreciate by at least 40 percent to $1.4 billion due to the boom in world art market. |
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| DAVID GEFFEN - Former record label impresario co-founded and owns 5 million shares of DreamWorks Animation. |
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| DAVID MURDOCK - Major holdings include Dole Food Co. Inc. and Castle & Cooke Inc., both taken private by Murdock. Saw net worth hold steady as Dole increased in value but homebuilder Castle & Cooke took hit due to softening housing market. |
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| HAIM SABAN - Saban sat back and watched investment in Israeli national telecommunications company, Bezwq Israel Telecom, appreciate nicely. It’s so far unclear how purchase of Univision Communications will turn out. Gains partly offset by IRS tax hit and $24 million in philanthropic donations. |
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| PATRICK SOON-SHIONG - Breast cancer drug Abraxane has propped up net worth of South African-born researcher and surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong. Sales of drug have boosted share price of L.A. drug developer Abraxis BioScience, compensating for more sluggish performance of his other company, generic drug maker APP Pharmaceuticals Inc. |
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| RON BURKLE - Chief of Los Angeles holding company Yucaipa Cos. continued dealmaking in 2007 with mixed results. Spent $1.5 billion to acquire AmeriCold Logistics, nation’s largest cold storage firm. |
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| STEVEN SPIELBERG - Spielberg’s annual income estimated at more than $100 million drawn from various business ventures. Holds 6 million shares of Dreamworks Animation SKG stock valued at $180 million. |
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| A. JERROLD PERENCHIO - It was a year of change for the former talent agent. Completed sale of Spanish-language media powerhouse Univision Communications to private equity group led by fellow Angeleno Haim Saban. The transaction earned Perenchio and his wife nearly $1.4 billion but added little to net worth. |
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| STEVEN FERENCZ UDVAR-HAZY - The subprime meltdown and credit crunch took a toll on Udvar-Hazy even though business is aircraft leasing. The co-founder of International Lease Finance Corp. saw net worth shrink when parent American International Group reported $12 billion in subprime-related losses. |
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| JOHN ANDERSON - Owner of Topa Equities, Century City holding company for 42 firms. Said all sectors did well, particularly consumer goods and services offered by his insurance agencies, auto dealerships and beverage distributorship. |
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| JOHN TU - An $800 million jump in computer memory sales at Kingston Technology Co. pumped up Tu’s net worth. The privately held company Tu co-founded reported $4.5 billion in sales and double the revenue gains of public rivals Micron Technology and AMD. |
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| ED ROSKI JR. - The Money: The real estate market has tanked but Roski has just about held his own – a testament to the strength of his holdings as owner and chief executive of Majestic Realty Co., one of the country’s largest privately held commercial real estate development and management companies. |
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| ANTHONY PRITZKER - Sell-off of assets reveals Pritzker family fortune is much larger than previously estimated. A wealth plan, made public during 2001 lawsuit, called for holdings estimated at $15 billion to be divided up by 2011. But intervening years have been very good to the family. |
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| TOME GORES - Despite series of acquisitions by Platinum Equity private buyout shop, net worth remained unchanged, according to spokesman. In largest deal valued at $2 billion, took private Ryerson Inc., big operator of metal service centers. |
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| FRANKLIN OTIS BOOTH JR. - Berkshire Hathaway has performed well this year, boosting the wealth of Booth, who owns 17,000 shares now worth more than $2.1 billion. Booth has extensive real estate holdings worth about $250 million. |
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| WILLIAM BARRON HILTON - Hilton’s wealth swelled in 2007 courtesy of two mega transactions. In April, stockholders approved the acquisition of Harrah’s Entertainment by two private equity groups, giving Hilton a 7 percent premium for his 4.5 million shares. Then in October, Blackstone Group acquired Hilton Hotels for $47.50 a share, a 28 percent premium. |
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| ALAN CASDEN - Value of Casden’s real estate portfolio rose dramatically with completion of his Westwood mixed-use Palazzo development, likely worth about $500 million. |
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| CHARLES MUNGER - Chaos on Wall Street has been good to Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He owns more than 15,000 shares of the company, which investors have flocked to amid the turmoil in the financial markets. Shares are up over the past 12 months. |
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| FOREIGN PRESENCE - Los Angeles is changing its profile from vacation spot to place of residence and investment for the world’s wealthy. |
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| PERSONAL SERVICE - Online matchmaker eHarmony is looking to hook up with overseas markets including China. |
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| RETAIL - A trial is looming over Mattel’s claim that an ex-employee took drawings for the Bratz line to rival MGA. |
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| PAGE 3 - Pinkberry Chief Executive Ron Graves says that working for the frozen yogurt purveyor gets his adrenaline pumping. Of course, it can’t compare to Graves’ old job – flying fighter jets. |
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| INTERNET - Tom Wassner and Reed Schmidt cull the garbage cans of the rich and famous for items to auction online and for a documentary on American celebrity. |
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| RETAIL - Unhappy with available camera bags, photographers Jessica Claire and Keats Elliott fashioned their own stylish and functional line. |
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| REGULATION - A Securities and Exchange Commission review of Sarbanes-Oxley has small businesses wondering what the ultimate impact of the 2002 act will be. |
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| AVIATION - Airbus’ superjumbo jet A380 is on schedule for a fall debut at LAX despite some production problems. |
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| MANUFACTURING - American Apparel Inc., the sometimes-controversial Los Angeles clothing manufacturer and retailer, is expanding in spite of its unsettled financial situation. |
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LAW - Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods & George LLP has formed a sports marketing and consulting firm that will be based in the firm’s Santa Monica office.
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REGULATION WATCH - The complexity of navigating across Web pages can tax even the most resourceful among us.
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| MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT - While ticket sales for everything from movie seats to theatrical performances have become a victim of a slowing economy, business for one local discount ticket broker has been booming. |
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| SECURITY - Carson-based MagTek’s payment card readers reject phony cards in addition to protecting customers’ personal data from theft. |
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| TECHNOLOGY - Web design agencies are a dime a dozen in Los Angeles. But they usually don’t develop their own software. |
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| INTERVIEW - Elise Buik, chief executive of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, has changed the focus of the non-profit from fundraising to addressing poverty issues |
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| FEATURED NEWSMAKER - Even as early as grade school, Alex Choi knew he would become a lawyer. While his 6-year-old friends had to beg their parents for G.I. Joes, Choi never whined when persuading his parents to get him what he wanted. |
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| NEWSMAKERS - Kudos, hirings and promotions. |
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REAL ESTATE - Two large property sales have occurred recently that have included debt assumption by the buyers, highlighting an emerging trend in the local real estate market. As financing becomes more difficult to obtain, some buyers are assuming in-place debt on property, says Kevin Shannon, a broker for CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., who handled two recent deals in Torrance and Culver City.
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| DOWNTOWN SECTION |
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| COMMENT - Charles Crumpley warns that L.A.’s problems fester as city leaders dream of solutions. |
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| TWO VIEWS - John Kabateck and Kofi Sefa-Boakye take opposing positions on whether Proposition 98’s limits on the government’s power to seize property would help or hurt challenged communities. |
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