With the 2024-25 NHL season approaching the halfway mark, the Anaheim Ducks are near the bottom of the 8-team Pacific Division, and a lengthy win streak away from a potential playoff spot.
But it’s certainly not all bad news for Ducks owner Henry Samueli, who by the Business Journal’s estimates in the past month overtook Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren for the top position among OC’s wealthiest residents.
On Dec. 13, semiconductor giant Broadcom Inc. (Nasdaq: AVGO), where Samueli serves as chairman, saw it’s already surging stock jump another 24%, after quarterly results showed strong AI revenue for the latest quarter, with expectations of more to come.
The jump pushed the Palo Alto-based firm’s valuation past the $1T mark; it’s one of eight U.S.-based public tech companies to currently hold that mark.
Broadcom, founded by Samueli and Henry Nicholas in 1991, was sold to Avago Technologies in 2016 for $37B in cash and stock, with the buyer keeping the OC firm’s name and local operations.
Samueli remains the largest individual owner of Broadcom stock, with a 1.9% stake in the firm as of earlier this year, regulatory filings indicate. As of last week, that stake was worth nearly $21B.
With the Ducks, real estate holdings and other assets, our estimate for Samueli’s wealth now runs in the $25B range, up from $17.6B this July. We estimated Bren’s wealth at $18.3B this summer, though plenty of knowledgeable sources suggest we’ve long undersold the real estate mogul’s true valuation.
Broadcom’s stock is up nearly 110% over the past year. The corresponding boost to Samueli’s wealth should make financing for his estimated $4B OCVibe mixed-use project around Honda Center a snap. It would also leave plenty left over to buy the nearby Angels baseball team, if Arte Moreno were to reverse course and look to sell his MLB franchise.
Our July wealth estimate for Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas was $8.4B; that figure is now likely over $10B. We have less clarity on Nicholas’ remaining stake in Broadcom, as he’s no longer involved in the firm.
Nicholas made a rare public appearance last month at a Thanksgiving event for Santa Ana’s Nicholas Academic Centers, which he funds and co-founded in 2007.
NAC supports underserved high school students and helps promote their admission to college. The center, now with three locations, reports that its 2,270 graduates have received over $124.1M in college scholarships and grants.
The NAC “is the only organization where the standards have risen as the size grew,” Nicholas said. “Before, NAC was an exploratory thing about college, but now we’re in the second generation of success. I’m humbled by the students.”
The Phoenix Business Journal reports that Angels owner Arte Moreno has paid top dollar to buy offices in his hometown, snapping up a 4-building, 200K-sq.-ft. complex for $60M. At $300 per square foot, it’s among the pricier deals for an office park in Phoenix this year.
It doesn’t appear Moreno’s betting on an improving office market, but rather investing in some peace and quiet. The newly bought complex was being eyed for demolition, to make way for an apartment redevelopment, and sits not far away from Moreno’s 20,500-sq.-ft. mansion.
For news on some local office-to-apartment redevelopment plans, see Parimal Rohit’s front-page story.