NYC mayor richest guy in town
[what an era, eh? when the mayor is the richest guy in town?]
New York Post - March 31, 2007
$13 BIL BLOOMY CITY’S RICHEST MAN ‘DOUBLES’ IN VALUE By RICHARD WILNER
Mo’ money for the mayor.
April 1, 2007 — The richest man in New York is none other than
public servant Mike Bloomberg.
The mayor is worth a staggering $13.6 billion - more than double the
previously estimated $5.5 billion - according to Fortune magazine,
and more than enough to make a run for the White House a veritable
cakewalk for the self-financing politician.
Bloomberg spent $150 million of his own money, a little more than
$100 per vote, on two successful runs for City Hall.
Hizzoner even brings up a potential presidential bid, albeit coyly,
in the Fortune article. He says he intends to pursue charity goals
after his mayoral term ends in 2009, “assuming I’m not living at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue” - the White House.
Bloomberg’s biggest asset is his 68 percent stake in Bloomberg LP,
the financial-information company he started in 1981 that has a
current estimated value of $20 billion, according to Fortune.
While Hizzoner earns only $1 annually for his day job, his share of
Bloomberg LP’s profits - $1.5 billion last year - translates into
$1.02 billion before taxes in liquid assets.
The company’s profit margin of 30 percent is twice as good as
Apple’s, Fortune reports.
The mayor removed himself from management of the company upon
assuming the mayoralty, but kept his financial stake.
Not bad for a kid from a blue-collar Boston suburb who was fired from
his job at Salomon Brothers.
Bloomberg’s bounty of assets includes an Upper East Side townhouse, a
Westchester farmhouse and getaways in London, Bermuda and Vail, Colo.
But he gives a lot of his money away. From 2000 to 20005, he donated
$528 million to nearly 1,000 organizations, according to published
reports. One of his favorite beneficiaries is his alma mater, Johns
Hopkins University, in Baltimore. He also poured $125 million over
two years into a worldwide anti-smoking initiative.
The mayor also uses his private wealth to fund city projects. Just
last week, Bloomberg announced the launch of a plan to pay the
parents of poor students who meet certain educational and family goals.
The newly revised fortune is slightly more than the $13 billion net
worth amassed by leveraged buyout titan Carl Icahn - who was
previously believed to be the king of Gotham’s billionaires. But it’s
less than some experts have estimated. One report last year put him
as high as $20 billion.
Earlier this month, Forbes magazine estimated Bloomberg’s fortune at
$5.5 million, which ranked the mayor as the 144th wealthiest person
in the world.
The more precise picture of Bloomberg’s wealth comes after Bloomberg
LP gave Fortune magazine unprecedented access to its financial
reports for an issue hitting newsstands later this week.
A spokesman for the mayor had no comment.