Poor Celeb Investments For The Ages

By Cornelius Nunev


While the miracle of celeb may elevate the status related to specific individuals, this does not mean that everything celebs touch turns to gold. Here are some bad celeb investments that may make you feel much better during the night.

Mark Twain investment

A well-known writer and humorist who has been called America's first modern celebrity, Mark Twain spent $150,000 to $300,000 (an enormous amount of money back then) over 11 years during the late 19th century on a machine known as the Paige Compositor. This was a typesetter that was said to be faster than standard Linotype. Unfortunately, the machine had more than 18,000 parts and needed constant care, so the business perished.

Jay-Z

The big investment mistake made by Jay-Z would not completely end until Dec. 2010 when out-of-court settlements and legal battles finally ended. He bought land to produce a luxury hotel in New York City. The hotel was going to be 150,000 square feet and would be for luxury guests in the Chelsea neighborhood. He started the project in 2007 right before the economic crash. He ended up defaulting on the $52 million loan and shut down the project because of lack of funds. Hotel partners had to give the lender the property back.

The Bono investment

Bono was very profitable in his investments with Facebook, BioWare, Pandemic Studios and Yelp. The only problem was that his confidence grew into investments in Forbes, Inc. ($300 million) and Palm ($460 million). These investments only brought a $25 million return for Bono, and he was known as "the worst investor in America" by 24/7 Wall Street. He is the managing director for entertainment equity firm Elevation Partners presently.

Idea Larry King had

Talk show host King became embroiled in a life insurance scam that involved flipping policies for profit. King gave up two policies worth a total of $15 million, but only made back $1.4 million on the sale.

Kevin Bacon and many more

Bernard Madoff is currently in jail for 11 federal felonies and serving a 150 year prison sentence. His $65 billion Ponzi scheme stole from over 200 investors, many of which were celebs. Now, all those investors try to determine how to proceed to make up for the lost cash.

Burt Reynolds did not make investments right

The most popular movie star of the 1970s, Burt Reynolds ended up dealing with the urge many celebrities face: opening a restaurant chain. The chain was PoFolks, and outlets existed in California, Texas and Florida. By the late 1980s, however, the cupboard was bare and Reynolds was out $15 million. His eventual divorce from Loni Anderson and diminished star power led to a 1996 bankruptcy. Even though he was more than $10 million in debt, bankruptcy court allowed him to keep his $2.5 million mansion and all of his personal property that Anderson had not already claimed.

Bad investment decision form Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds decided she wanted to open a Las Vegas casino and hotel in 1991, although she did not realize that being off the strip would make it impossible to stay in business. It was called the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, but she wound up selling it for $10 million to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 after a 1997 bankruptcy. She wound up broke, and was even worse off when having to sell all her film career memorabilia last year when her museum went bankrupt.




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