Paul Allen buys 27M Atherton Mansion

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen buys $27M Atherton mansion

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BUSINESS JOURNAL | Karen Ducey

Paul Allen is the co-founder of Microsoft, but has gone on to invest in everything from real estate to energy to sports teams. Now he's setting down roots in Atherton.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein

Real Estate Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal

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Microsoft co-founder, Seattle Seahawks owner and billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen has paid $27 million for a luxurious, 22,000-square-foot mansion in tony Atherton.
Allen, whose net worth hovers at nearly $16 billion according to Forbes, closed on the property Nov. 12 through a family trust, according to public records that I reviewed this week at the San Mateo County Clerk Recorder's Office.
Allen is most strongly associated with the Seattle area, where he has a residence on Mercer Island, a short distance from the Microsoft headquarters of Redmond. But he also owns property all over the world including Kona, Hawaii; Beverly Hills; Manhattan; Cap Ferrat, France; and London, according to news reports.
Allen, 60, co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Bill Gates. He left the company after a cancer diagnosis, which he beat, in 1983. Allen is still a major Microsoft shareholder.
Since then, he has embarked on a series of high-profile projects and investments, including buying the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team in 1988, the Seahawks NFL team in 1997, and co-founding the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project Museum in 2000 in Seattle.
His entree to Silicon Valley may have been foreshadowed in April, when Allen's investment firm, Vulcan Capital, announced it would open an office in Palo Alto to "focus on expanding the firm's investments in the Internet and technology sectors," according to a news release at the time. Vulcan has been on a tear lately, with investments in Seattle's South Lake Union district and energy paying off big-time.
A representative for Vulcan didn't return multiple calls or emails.

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Nathan Donato-Weinstein covers commercial real estate and transportation for the Silicon Valley Business Journal.