THE START: Brothers arrived in the U.S. after 1979 Iranian revolution. With $100K of their own money, brothers in 1990 started Santa Ana tech company, originally called Simple Technology and then shortened to Stec. It designed and sold memory modules and expanded into flash memory. Went public in 2000, reaching $1B market cap. Became pioneer in enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) with 80+ patents and 14M units shipped. Manouch Moshayedi ran into problems with SEC accusations that were eventually resolved by unanimous jury verdict in his favor. Company in 2013 sold for $340M to Western Digital, which at that time was based in Irvine.
REAL ESTATE: Brothers often collaborate across deals. Manouch runs MX3 Ventures while Mark Moshayedi in 2018 started Space Investment Partners. Properties include Yorba Linda Town Center and The Village Shopping Center in Corona del Mar. After the Great Recession of 2008, purchased The Shoppes at Chino Hills for $95M and sold it for $147M in 2015. It has acquired properties like University Square in San Diego and Westport Square + Plaza in Costa Mesa; the latter was sold in June. The company demonstrated its negotiating prowess when it acquired the Fullerton Metrocenter for $118M in June, far below the estimated $182M estimated price suggested by market research.
Since 2009, the family has assembled large chunks of commercial property along the Mariner’s Mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach, including several blocks’ worth of waterfront property. Sites under its control on the ocean side of the highway include the former Ardell Yacht & Ship Brokers building, the nearby Duffy Electric Boats Co. rental store, and the Mariner’s Mile Marine Center offices. The brothers in 2017 filed plans with Newport Beach to redevelop part of their holdings into a mix of uses featuring retail, offices, restaurants and apartments taking up several hundred thousand square feet.
Mark says Space Investment Partners aims to buy properties that’d cost anywhere from $15M to $250M along the West Coast and is looking for 15% to 25% growth. “We could do a billion dollars (in deals) right now if we found the right ones,” Mark told the Business in 2018.
THE FUN: The brothers love vintage cars, such as a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300Sc Roadster, only 53 of the model were built and fewer than 35 of which remain. Mark paid a reported $3.5M for a McLaren Speedtail, one of about 100 in the world. He says “cars are a great investment, actually,” and pricier vehicles are the best bet, more likely to hold their value than a $100K car. Brothers in 2021 started My Car Auction to sell used vehicles, saying it can provide a car’s value in 45 seconds.
THE MONEY: The Business Journal in 2021 estimated the family wealth at $720M. If the brothers average 15% annual return during that four-year stretch, their combined worth would be about $1.3B.
