“Larry Ellison, the billionaire chief executive of Oracle Corp., was identified Wednesday as the buyer of the bulk of the Hawaiian island of Lanai,” Don Clark and Ben Worthen report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The deal to buy 98% of the 141-square-mile island was disclosed by the state’s governor, Neil Abercrombie, who cited a transfer application that owner Castle & Cooke Inc. filed with the Public Utilities Commission,” Clark and Worthen report. “Lanai, which is nine miles off the coast of Maui, is the smallest inhabited island in Hawaii that is publicly accessible. It has long been controlled by billionaire David Murdock—who also controls Castle & Cooke and who is known for closing the island’s original pineapple plantations to make way for development.”
Clark and Worthen report, “The Maui News reported that the asking price for the property was between $500 million and $600 million. Representatives for Castle & Cooke and Mr. Ellison couldn’t be reached. Mr. Ellison, 67 years old, is the third-richest person in the U.S., according to Forbes, with a fortune estimated at more than $30 billion.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Makes a fighter jet seem like a checkout counter impulse purchase.