We knew she was now a very independently wealthy woman, of course, but with this year's Forbes American billionaires list out yesterday, there's Steve Wynn's former wife chiming in at No. 382 with $1.05 billion on "hotels."Steve sits on the same list at No. 205 with $1.9 billion (on "hotels, casinos"), which means that had he not divorced Elaine he'd be No. 111. (He was No. 141 in 2009.) That would have put him ahead of -- but instead he's behind -- Phil Ruffin (No. 182 with $2b on "casinos, real estate") and Donald Trump (No. 153 with $2.4b on "real estate"). Interestingly, despite shedding a billion to Elaine, Wynn's only down $400 million from last year. Why, exactly, is he so bitter at Obama?
Other notable Las Vegas-related folks:
* Sheldon Adelson ($14.7 billion) has rebounded to No. 13 thanks to Singapore and quipped: "I'm too old to be a kid, so call me the 'comeback adolescent.'" He was No. 26 last year.
* Frank Fertitta III (No. 365 with $1.1 billion) and Lorenzo Fertitta (No. 385 with $1 billion) just made the list pretty much on the value of the UFC alone, given that Station Casinos is in bankruptcy and all.
* Fontainebleau owner Carl Icahn is No. 24 with $11 billion on "leveraged buyouts"
* Kirk Kerkorian chimes in at No. 119 with $2.9 billion
Meanwhile, Wallet Pop has countered the Forbes list -- although Forbes is linking directly to this -- with its list of the 10 worst celebrity business owners. Heidi Fleiss is No. 7 and Paris Hilton is No. 1. Far less scientific, but certainly entertaining nonetheless.
5 comments:
Surely some of Elaine Wynn's wealth at $1 billion would have been her own before the divorce? She's not defined purely by her marriage or lack of it...
I am sure she wouldn't have gone from $0 to $1 billion... I'd imagien instead that Steve's $400 million is what he lost to Elaine.
Chris: The couple owned their stock in his name before the divorce, and that's where most of the wealth comes from. Steve's $400m loss is a combination of giving about $900m in stock to Elaine in the divorce and in increase in stock value offsetting that. these lists largely run off of what is publicly known, i.e. the value of stock and real estate, things that can be quantified. So prior to the divorce, Elaine didn't really own anything on her own that would be counted.
i think comeback codger has a better ring to it, sheldy.
How about I read the source material first, sorry Steve...
Indeed, Steve gave up around 11 million certificates in stock at ~$700million, which has gained 25% since the divorce... that implies she had around $100 million in her own assets not from the divorce (one assumes some smaller stake in Wynn Corp or other investments?)... which while doesn't count for Forbes, wouldn't half be bad :)
Chris - yeah, but even her real estate and art holdings, which probably account for much of the rest of her worth, was community property until the divorce. Wynn had told me a that she got the Sun Valley and NY homes plus a lot of artwork. Who knows how they calculate it, but she's on the list now because of the divorce.
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