Sam Zell

Infobox Celebrity


image_size = 150px
name = Samuel Zell
caption =
birth_date = September, 1941
birth_place = Chicago, Illinois
occupation = Chairman and Chief Executive of Tribune Company and Equity Group Investments
salary =
networth = US$6.0 billion (2006)
spouse =
website =
footnotes =
children =

Samuel "Sam" Zell (born September 1941) is a U.S.-born billionaire and real estate entrepreneur. He is co-founder and Chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm. With an estimated net worth of US$5 billion, he is ranked as the 68th richest American by "Forbes".cite web | url=http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Samuel-Zell_98EF.html | title=The 400 Richest Americans | work=Forbes | date=2008-09-16 | accessdate=2008-09-17] In April 2007, Zell completed a leveraged buyout of the Tribune Company, publisher of the "Chicago Tribune" and the "Los Angeles Times". He is also the owner of the Chicago Cubs.

Biography

Early life

Zell was born in Chicago in 1941 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland who fled the country just before the Nazi invasion in 1939. Shortly after moving from Seattle to Chicago, Zell's father Bernard changed the family name from Zielonka to Zell.cite web | url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/25/business/zell.php | title=Sam Zell, the 'grave dancer,' sees profit in newspapers | author=Katharine Q. Seelye, Terry Pristin | work=International Herald Tribune | date=2007-03-25 | accessdate=2007-04-03 ] He received his BA (1963) from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He also received his JD (1966) from the University of Michigan Law School.cite web |url=http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/25/ap3549352.html |title=Billionaire Investor Sam Zell at Glance |format= |work=Associated Press | date=2006-09-21 |accessdate=2007-04-04 ]

Real estate business

Zell, with Robert Lurie went on to found the Equity Group Investments, LLC, which spawned three real estate public companies, including: Equity Residential, the largest apartment owner in the United States; Equity Office Properties, the largest office owner in the country; and Manufactured Home Communities, a mobile home company. In addition, Zell has created a number of public and private companies. He also controls SZ Investments LLC as his investment arm.

Zell is also Chairman of Capital Trust Inc., a finance and investment management company focused on the commercial real estate industry, and Anixter International, the world's largest distributor of communication products and electrical and electronic wire and cable.

Recently, the Blackstone Group completed its purchase of Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion, [cite web | url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atWSiIP4b9Lg | title=Blackstone's Costly Buyout, Navistar's Listing
first=David| last=Wilson| work=Bloomberg | date=2007-02-08 | accessdate=2007-04-05 ] and sold off many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts. [cite web | url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-enlargePic07.html | title =The Equity Office Triple Flips | work=Wall Street Journal]

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.

On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced their acceptance of Zell's offer to buy the "Chicago Tribune", the "Los Angeles Times", and other media assets. On December 20, 2007, Zell took the company private, and the following day he became the Chairman and CEO. He plans to sell the Chicago Cubs, and sell the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

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. [Harold Meyerson, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061002529_pf.html "The L.A. Times's Human Wrecking Ball",] "Washington Post," June 11, 2008]

Zell is known for using "salty" language in the newsroom. [http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=137585 Los Angeles Times staffers warned about behaving like Zell] ] 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." [http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/02/let_sam_be_sam_but_you_be.php Let Sam be Sam, but you be nice] ]

Zell's profanity and small stature were satirized by [http://notthelatimes.com/zell.html NotTheLATimes.com] , a Web site parody published July 28, 2008.

Philanthropy

A long-time supporter of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he helped fund the Real Estate Department at Wharton, as well as the Zell-Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. Zell also endowed [http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/risk/ the Zell Center for Risk Research] at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. Zell has also donated significantly to his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Zell, according to "The Forward"Nathaniel Popper, [http://www.forward.com/articles/billionaire-boychiks-battle-for-media-empire/ "Billionaire Boychiks Battle for Media Empire: ‘Committed Zionist’ To Buy Papers With Troubled Ties to Community",] "The Forward," April 13, 2007] , is also "a major donor to causes in the Middle East. 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. In the United States, he has given major gifts to such Jewish causes as the American Jewish Committee and a Chicago Jewish day school named after his father."

Political contributions

Zell has donated to both Republican and Democratic candidates — with more money going to the former — as well as to lobbying groups representing the real estate industry. According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Public Integrity, "Zell has given more than $100,000 in political contributions since the 1998 election cycle, most of it supporting Republican causes."cite news | coauthors = Welsh, Ben |last = McGarry |first=Brendan | title = In Political Contribution, Zell Leans Right and Wife Leans Left | publisher = Center for Public Integrity | date = April 4, 2007 | language = English | url = http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/report.aspx?aid=822]

Controversies

In 2008, Zell announced 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 for anyone willing to put up the money. These announcements have been widely unpopular in Chicagocite news | coauthors = The Daily Fix |last = |first= | title = Cubs Fans Consider a Wrigley by Any Other Name | publisher = "The Wall Street Journal" | date = February 29, 2008 | language = English | url = http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2008/02/29/cubs-fans-consider-a-wrigley-by-any-other-name/] cite news | coauthors = |last =Wojciechowski |first=Gene | title = Cubs' new owner should think again about renaming Wrigley | publisher = ESPN.com | date = March 2, 2008 | language = English | url = http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3270817&sportCat=mlb] 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 was renamed.cite news | coauthors = |last =Dodd |first=Mike | title = For Cubs fans, renaming Wrigley is dealbreaker | publisher = "USA Today" | date = March 1, 2008 | language = English | url = http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/cubs/2008-02-27-wrigley-naming-rights_N.htm]

In April 2008, Zell made a controversial comment about the subprime mortgage crisis at a conference in Los Angeles, where he stated, "this country needs a cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have been in houses in the first place." He was referring to the fact that over the past 50 years, there have been several times when the marketplace has tried to increase home ownership above 62%, and each time it causes a significant problem. Lenders were lending with no money down, no collateral and no proof of income.

In June 2008, Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe took Sam Zell to task for the changes he has brought to both the "Los Angeles Times" and the Tribune Company. But since Zell has taken over Tribune and the media industry has experienced an unprecedented decline, no one else has put an idea on the table to reinvent a sustainable newspaper product. [ [http://www.politickerca.com/robtornoe/1232/sam-zell-leaves-his-mark-los-angeles-times Sam Zell leaves his mark on the Los Angeles Times | PolitickerCA ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.equityinternational.com/team_zell.html Sam Zell Biography]
* [http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/risk/ The Zell Center for Risk Research at the Kellogg School of Management]
* [http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/ The Zell Lurie Institute: The University of Michigan]
* [http://realestate.wharton.upenn.edu/ The Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton]
* [http://www.idc.ac.il/zell/ The Zell entrepreneurship program at the Interdisciplinary Center, in Israel]
* [http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Sam_Zell.php Detailed list of Zell's federal campaign contributions since 1979]
* [http://www.yegsz.com/# Zell's Year End Gift]
* [http://www.whatthezell.com/ "What the Zell?" Chronicles one of the most-quotable men in journalism]
* [http://notthelatimes.com/zell.html "Go to Zell," a parody Zell blog in Not the L.A. Times]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/30/useconomy.usa]