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Sam Zell

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Samuel Zell
Born
Shmuel Zielonka

(1941-09-27) September 27, 1941 (age 83)
Chicago, Illinois
Education
OccupationChairman of Equity Group Investments
SpouseHelen Zell
Children3
Websiteegizell.com

Samuel "Sam" Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka) on September 28, 1941) is an American business magnate. He is chairman of Equity Group Investments (EGI), the private investment firm he founded in 1969. The majority of his investment portfolio ranges across industries such as energy, manufacturing, logistics/transportation, healthcare, and communications, but he is often noted for his pioneering role in creating the modern commercial real estate industry.

Zell is also the founder and chairman of Equity International, a private investment firm focused on building real estate-related businesses in international emerging markets. In addition, Zell maintains substantial interests in, and is the Chairman of, a number of public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including: Equity Residential (EQR), the largest apartment real estate investment trust (or REIT) in the U.S.; Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), a REIT that owns and operates manufactured home and resort communities; Equity Commonwealth (EQC) an office REIT; Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), an international owner/operator of energy-from-waste and power generation facilities; and Anixter (AXE), a leading global provider of communications, security, and wire and cable products, whose market share was estimated as being $2.9bn in 2015.[2]

Early life and education

Zell was born in Chicago to a Jewish family, the son of Ruchla and Berek Zielonka. His parents were Jewish emigrants from Poland, where his father had been a successful grain trader.[3][4] They immigrated to the United States via Tokyo just before the German invasion of Poland in 1939.[3][5] Soon after arriving, his parents changed their first and last names, becoming Rochelle and Bernard Zell.[3][6] They then moved from Seattle to Chicago where his father became a jewelry wholesaler.[3] When Sam was 8 years old, his sister Leah was born. When he was twelve, the family moved to Highland Park, Illinois where he graduated from Highland Park High School[3] and his sister was valedictorian of her 1967 high school class. In 1963, Sam graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan, where he was also a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[3] While in school, Zell managed a 15 unit apartment building in return for free room-and-board and was soon managing the owner's other properties.[3] Joined by his fraternity brother Robert H. Lurie, he won a contract with a large apartment development owner in Ann Arbor who was impressed with Zell's knowledge of what students wanted. By the time he graduated with a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1966,[7] he and Lurie were managing over 4,000 apartments and owned 100-200 units outright.[8] After school, he sold off his interest in the management company to Lurie and moved to Chicago.[3]

Career

After graduation, he worked as a lawyer for one week before deciding that the profession was not for him. One of the senior partners who admired Zell's zeal, decided to invest with him, enabling Zell to purchase an apartment building in Toledo.[3] In 1968, Zell founded the predecessor of Equity Group Investments and was joined a year later by his former partner, Robert H. Lurie. Together, they went on to grow the small firm into a vast enterprise, until Lurie's death in 1990. Equity Group Investments was the genesis for three of the largest public real estate companies in history,[9] including: Equity Residential, the largest apartment owner in the United States; Equity Office Properties Trust, the largest office owner in the country; and Equity Lifestyle, an owner/operator of manufactured home and resort communities. With their entry onto the public markets in the 1990s, Zell became recognized as a founding father of the modern real estate industry.[citation needed] In addition, Zell has created a number of public and private companies in various other industries.[citation needed]

In 2007 the Blackstone Group completed its purchase of Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion,[10] which was the largest LBO in history at the time. Blackstone sold off many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts.[11] By early 2009 most of the properties sold were "under water" (worth less than the mortgage).[11]

Investments

Zell affiliates owned the Schwinn Bicycle Company,[12] the drugstore Revco,[13] department store chain Broadway Stores,[14] energy company Santa Fe Energy Resources[15] and mattress company Sealy.[16] In 1985, Zell took over Itel Corporation.[17]

Media investments

Between 1992 and 1999, Zell's Chillmark fund owned Jacor Communications, Inc., a successful radio broadcast group that included a television station. The company was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 1999.[18] On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its acceptance of Zell's offer to sponsor the going-private transaction of Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the company's other media assets. On December 20, 2007, Zell took the company private, and the following day he became the Chairman and CEO. He sold the Chicago Cubs and the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Under the burden of the debt incurred as part of Zell's leveraged buyout and in context of the unexpected severity of the Great Recession, the Tribune Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December 2008.[19]

Los Angeles Times

In a sharply critical June 2008 opinion piece for The Washington Post entitled, "The L.A. Times' Human Wrecking Ball", veteran Los Angeles-based editor and columnist Harold Meyerson took Zell to task for "taking bean counting to a whole new level", asserting that "he's well on his way to ... destroying the L.A. Times." Comparing Zell to James McNamara, who was sentenced to life in prison for the notorious 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing (which killed 21 employees), Meyerson concluded his article by opining that "Life in San Quentin sounds about right" for Zell.[20]

Tribune Company

In January 2008, Zell bought a controlling share in the Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers. His decision to put Randy Michaels in charge was one of several moves that were sharply criticized by the employees. Besides creating a hostile workplace (citation needed), Michaels laid off several employees while giving large bonuses to the executives. Less than a year after Mr. Zell bought the company, it tipped into bankruptcy, listing $7.6 billion in assets against a debt of $13 billion, making it the largest bankruptcy in the history of the American media industry. More than 4,200 people have lost jobs since the purchase, while resources for the Tribune newspapers and television stations have been slashed."[21]

Philanthropy

Zell and his wife, Helen, are active philanthropists who focus heavily on education and the arts. Among their public beneficiaries are: the University of Michigan with the sponsorship of the Zell/Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program, Northwestern University's Kellogg School Zell Center for Risk Research and Zell's Scholar Program, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center, Ounce of Prevention, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chicago Symphony.[citation needed]

Zell, according to The Forward,[22] is also "a major donor to causes in Israel. His donations include a $3.1 million donation to the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and separate donations to the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a free market oriented Israeli think tank founded by Daniel Doron. In the United States, he has given major gifts to such Jewish causes as the American Jewish Committee and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, a Chicago Jewish primary school named after his father."

Controversies

In 2007, Zell acquired a newspaper publisher company called Tribune Co.,[23] simultaneously announcing the plan to sell the Chicago Cubs. During a conference with journalists from the Orlando Sentinel (part of the Tribune Co.), Zell told a journalist that "hopefully we get the point where our revenue is so significant that we can do puppies and Iraq. Okay? Fuck you.".[24]

In 2008, Zell confirmed a plan to place the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale separately in order to maximize profits. He also announced he would consider selling naming rights to Wrigley Field. These announcements were widely unpopular in Chicago[25][26] and a poll taken by the Chicago Sun-Times showed that 53% of 2,000 people who voted said they would no longer attend Cubs games if the field were renamed.[27]

Zell's company Equity LifeStyle Properties, a leading owner/operator of manufactured home and resort communities, has been criticized by tenants and their representatives for working to eliminate rent-control laws in local municipalities so that they can bring rents on their properties up to market-level rates. The company characterizes rent controls as "private subsidies for mobile-home dwellers", saying in 2007 that its annual subsidy to California tenants was $15 million.[28]

Personal life

Zell has been married three times and divorced twice. He has three children:[29] son, Matthew, JoAnn, and Kellie, adopted from his second marriage.[3] His third wife is Helen Zell.[3]

Zell is known for using "salty" language in the newsroom.[30] In February 2008, the website LA Observed reprinted an internal memo that said:

Last week you may have encountered some colorful uses of the lexicon from Sam Zell that we are not used to hearing at the Times... But of course we still have the same expectations at the Times of what is correct in the workplace. It's not good judgment to use profane or hostile language and we can't tolerate that... In short, nothing changes; the fundamental rules of decorum and decency apply... Sam is a force of a nature; the rest of us are bound by the normal conventions of society.[31]

References

  1. ^ Forbes: "The World's Billionaires - Sam Zell January 2015
  2. ^ Hammond, Ed. "Anixter puts fasteners unit on auction block", Forbes, 5 January 2015. Accessed 26 January 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Johnson, by Ben E. Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks: Inside the Contrarian Mind of Billionaire Mogul Sam Zell Dec 31, 2009
  4. ^ Financial Post: "Lawrence Solomon: The Jewish press and Israel" by Lawrence Solomon November 30, 2012
  5. ^ Raphael, Marc (2008). The Columbia history of Jews and Judaism in America. Columbia. p. 237.
  6. ^ Katharine Q. Seelye, Terry Pristin (March 25, 2007). "Sam Zell, the 'grave dancer', sees profit in newspapers". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
  7. ^ Laing, Jonathan R. (2011-11-05). "CEO Spotlight: Sam Zell - Barron's". Online.barrons.com. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  8. ^ "The Bottom Line: "Profiles in Investing: Sam Zell and Zell's Angels"" (PDF). Grahamanddoddsville.net. Retrieved January 29, 2004.
  9. ^ "Samuel Zell". Covanta. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  10. ^ Wilson, David (February 8, 2007). "Blackstone's Costly Buyout, Navistar's Listing". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  11. ^ a b Charles V. Bagli (February 6, 2009). "Sam Zell's Empire, Underwater in a Big Way". The New York Times.
  12. ^ Judith Crown (May 12, 1997). "ZELL & CO. PEDDLING SCHWINN". Crain's Chicago Business.
  13. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Chairman of Revco Is Dismissed by Board". The New York Times. June 5, 1992.
  14. ^ GEORGE WHITE and STUART SILVERSTEIN (August 15, 1995). "Federated Stores to Buy Broadway in $373-Million Deal". Los Angeles Times.
  15. ^ William Gruber (January 11, 1993). "Pritzker Clan, Zell On Investment Roll". Chicago Tribune.
  16. ^ Stanley Ziemba (January 22, 1997). "Zell's Sealy Sells Furniture Unit". Chicago Tribune.
  17. ^ "Sam Zell — "Going for Greatness"". Graham & Doddsville (XIV): 27. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  18. ^ Alejandro Bodipo-Memba (October 9, 1998). "Clear Channel Wins Bidding Contest, Agrees to Buy Jacor Communications". Wall Street Journal.
  19. ^ Shira Ovide (December 9, 2008). "Tribune Co. Files for Chapter 11 Protection". Wall Street Journal.
  20. ^ Harold Meyerson, "The L.A. Times's Human Wrecking Ball", Washington Post, June 11, 2008
  21. ^ [1] Archived April 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Nathaniel Popper, "Billionaire Boychiks Battle for Media Empire: ‘Committed Zionist’ To Buy Papers With Troubled Ties to Community", The Forward, April 13, 2007
  23. ^ Zappone, Chris (April 3, 2007). "Zell buys Tribune Co., Cubs to be sold". cnn.
  24. ^ Tate, Ryan (February 4, 2008). "Exclusive: Sam Zell Says Fuck You To His Journalist". Gawker.
  25. ^ Bialik, Carl (February 29, 2008). "Cubs Fans Consider a Wrigley by Any Other Name". The Wall Street Journal.
  26. ^ Wojciechowski, Gene (March 2, 2008). "Cubs' new owner should think again about renaming Wrigley". ESPN.
  27. ^ Dodd, Mike (March 1, 2008). "For Cubs fans, renaming Wrigley is dealbreaker". USA Today.
  28. ^ Mulligan, Thomas S. (April 2, 2007). "A Zell-led firm's fight with small tenants". Loa Angeles Times. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  29. ^ "#52 Samuel Zell". Forbes.com. 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  30. ^ Romenesko, Jim (2008-02-12). "Los Angeles Times staffers warned about behaving like Zell | Poynter". Poynter. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  31. ^ Roderick, Kevin (2008-02-11). "Let Sam be Sam, but you be nice". LA Observed. Retrieved 2015-08-25.


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