Billionaire’s planned house would eclipse Gates mansion
San Francisco – Some of the computer software industry’s richest moguls may soon be dealing with a case of castle envy.
David Duffield, a billionaire who amassed most of his fortune by reluctantly selling PeopleSoft Inc. last year, has submitted plans for a 72,000-square-foot home that would eclipse the mammoth mansions custom-made for his more famous peers, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison.
But Duffield’s palatial vision may never be realized.
The project already is facing intense opposition from the neighbors who would have to live in the shadow of the proposed three-story home in Alamo, Calif. – a tony suburb about 30 miles east of San Francisco.
Alamo resident Bruce Smith, whose family previously owned the 8,000-square-foot home that Duffield hopes to demolish to make room for his new house, said the land was never intended for a residence that will dwarf the 60,645-square-foot Hearst Castle and the 55,000-square-foot White House.
“I really don’t have a problem with a man pursuing his dreams, but this is just too much,” Smith said Wednesday.
Efforts to reach Duffield were unsuccessful.
SAN FRANCISCO
Denver tower bought in August up for sale
A California real-estate fund that just weeks ago acquired Denver’s Lincoln Center is putting the building along with a $1 billion portfolio of properties on the block.
Real-estate services firm Divco West and its Page Mill Properties LP equity fund have retained Secured Capital to sell a portfolio of 13 properties encompassing more than 4 million square feet of commercial office space, of which 2.5 million feet are in the San Francisco Bay area.
Only two properties are outside California. One is Lincoln Center, a 30-story skyscraper at 1660 Lincoln St. Page Mill paid approximately $36 million in August for the building.
WASHINGTON
Oil-price dip indicates slackening demand
The price of oil fell to its lowest level in two months on Wednesday as evidence builds that the high cost of gasoline and other fuels is sapping demand.
New data from the Energy Department show that fuel consumption over the past month declined by almost 3 percent compared with last year. Analysts attributed the trend to soaring pump prices and a slowdown in economic activity, particularly among Gulf Coast states that were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
DENVER
Ticket firm sues over failed Oregon festival
A Boulder concert ticketing company is suing organizers of a failed music festival in Oregon that it says left it with $188,000 in ticket refunds.
Baseline Ticketing, also known as String Cheese Incident Ticketing, sued organizers of the Shakedown Campout and Music Festival, which was to take place in North Plains, Ore., on Aug. 26 and 27. The suit was filed in federal court in Denver on Wednesday.
Baseline is seeking at least $588,000 in damages. The company said the event’s organizers lied about their financial strength and left it to pay ticket holders back when the event was canceled three hours before it was to start. Baseline’s allegations include breach of contract, misrepresentation and theft.
NEW YORK
Investors’ suit claims sham in Delphi sales
Delphi Corp. and several former and current senior executives engaged in a series of sham sales of worthless inventory designed to boost the company’s bottom line, shareholders claim in a lawsuit in New York.
Delphi, the biggest U.S. auto- parts maker, sold “problematic inventory” to third parties for “enormous sums of money,” two state pension funds and two European funds claim in the class action suit. Delphi agreed to buy the material back later, while recording almost $300 million from those transactions, the investor complaint claims.
DENVER
Qwest seeks to avoid rule on sales to rivals
Denver-based Qwest is asking federal regulators for an exemption to rules that require it to sell telecommunications access at or below cost to prospective competitors.
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Qwest said it should not have to sell lines and services at discounted costs to the companies that will arise from the proposed mergers of SBC and AT&T, and of Verizon and MCI.
DETROIT
Analysts laud GM for selling stake in firm
General Motors Corp.’s decision to sell its 20 percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries will help the troubled U.S. automaker streamline its business and raise cash, auto analysts said Wednesday, but some questioned Toyota Motor Corp.’s purchase of GM’s stake.
Toyota said Wednesday it has agreed to buy an 8.7 percent stake in Fuji from GM for about $315 million. Fuji is a rival Japanese automaker that makes Subaru cars.
SUNNYVALE, Calif.
Yahoo buys website for event planning
Yahoo Inc. has acquired Upcoming.org, an online event planning site that’s expected to infuse the Internet powerhouse with more content about local communities.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company confirmed the deal late Tuesday without disclosing financial terms of the acquisition. Los Angeles-based Upcoming acts as a social calendar that depends on its users to post free listings about a wide range of upcoming events.
WASHINGTON
Regulators target firm that installs spyware
Regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly downloaded spyware onto the computers of Internet users, opening them to a flood of pop-up ads, computer crashes and other problems.
The Federal Trade Commission accused Walter Rines of Stratham, N.H., and his company, Odysseus Marketing, of luring computer users with the promise of free software that would make illegal peer-to-peer file sharing anonymous and hard to trace.
CHEYENNE
BLM gets $10 million for oil, gas leases
Receipts of more than $10.6 million were received for leasing rights on Wyoming parcels offered by the Bureau of Land Management at the bimonthly federal oil and gas lease oral auction held Tuesday in Cheyenne.
Bids ranged from the federally mandated minimum of $2 per acre to $1,200 per acre. That bid was for a 446.790 acre parcel in Carbon County that was won by T.S. Dudley Land Co. of Oklahoma City.
