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.