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Bad News Paul Allen has lost $40 Billion, Good News he still

Posted by Paul McMillan on Sun Jan 05, 2003 02:02:13 PM

$21 Billion!!!

So lots of money for more warbirds ;-)

No mention of Warbirds in the list below though!

The Sunday Times - Business

January 05, 2003

The ?accidental zillionaire? starts singing the blues
Paul Allen, the tycoon who co-founded Microsoft, has lost $40bn in two years, writes Dominic Rushe from New York

MUDDY WATERS, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson ? it?s a year for singing the blues.
The American government has declared 2003 a year to celebrate blues music, its stars and their contribution to society. There will be festivals, speeches, books, CDs, concerts and lectures, culminating this autumn with a television series on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) produced by Martin Scorsese, the film director.

Created by poor, oppressed African Americans, the blues is one of America?s greatest musical treasures and the foundation of nearly every kind of pop music that was born in the 20th century, from jazz to hip-hop.

Much of the celebration of a music that arose from poverty will be made possible by one of its richest fans, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Like the blues legends, Allen knows a thing or two about changing fortunes. He has fought off serious illness and seen $40 billion wiped off his personal worth in the past two years. But his misfortune is relative ? he is still worth $21 billion.

Allen?s music museum in Seattle will host blues events, and he will be executive producer of Scorcese?s project. As the world?s fourth-richest man, Allen can still afford to indulge his passions.

Dubbed ?the accidental zillionaire?, he helped to develop the famous Windows software with his high-school friend Bill Gates. Allen left the company in 1983 ? keeping a stake now worth $8.5 billion ? to fight cancer.

Ever since his brush with death, Allen has been living a life that reads like a caricature of the billionaire baby boomer.

Much of his time appears to have been spent buying islands, sports teams, sailing on his high-tech yacht and jetting around the world on his Boeing 757. He even has a band, Grown Men, and plays guitar ? well.

It sounds like fun. But 2002 was not a good year for Allen.

In the sports world Allen?s teams have received more than one red card. OneWorld, his yachting team, was penalised for espionage and members of his bad-boy basketball squad, the Portland Trail Blazers, have been in and out of trouble with the police.

And just before Christmas two top executives were sacked at Charter Communications, citing a criminal investigation into the company?s methods for counting subscribers and accounting for capital expenses.

Charter is Allen?s most serious business venture since Microsoft. In the 1990s Allen went on an enormous spending spree to turn Charter into the country?s fourth-largest cable company ? driven by his belief that television is the best way to deliver a ?wired world?.

Charter raised $3.2 billion when it floated in November 1999. At the time it was the largest initial public offering after Conoco and Goldman Sachs. Some 170m shares were sold at $19 and Allen looked set to strike gold for a second time. Today the shares are worth $1.23.

Charter is now struggling with $18 billion of debt. Allen controls 56% of the company mostly through Vulcan Ventures, his investment company, and is estimated to have lost $8 billion. Allen, who was not available for comment, remains a very rich man but if these losses continue it may be time for the Grown Men to start singing the blues.



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