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Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, reportedly paid $165 million (Dh606m) for a nine-acre historic Beverly Hills mansion, setting a record for a Los Angeles-area home.
Mr Bezos bought the property from billionaire DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen, who had bought it for $47.5m in 1990, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The estate was designed for the late Hollywood film titan Jack Warner – of Warner Brothers fame – in the 1930s. A 1992 Architectural Digest article described it as "the archetypal studio mogul's estate" with its 1,260-square-metre Georgian-style mansion, expansive terraces and gardens, tennis court, swimming pool, two guesthouses and a nine-hole golf course.
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The purchase surpasses the previous Los Angeles County record set late last year by News Corporation heir Lachlan Murdoch, who paid $150m for the Bel Air estate that had been featured on “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show.
It is also the second-biggest US transaction recorded, behind Citadel founder Ken Griffin's $238m New York penthouse purchase in January of last year.
In addition to the Warner estate, Bezos Expeditions, an umbrella company that manages Mr Bezos's personal investments, paid $90m for an undeveloped plot of land from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the WSJ said. Earlier this year, Mr Bezos purchased three New York apartments in a deal valued at around $80m.
The real estate splurge come as Mr Bezos cashed out 2 million Amazon shares, worth $4.1bn, as part of a pre-arranged trading plan between January 31 and February 6, according to regulatory filings.
Bezos’s real-estate empire already features homes on both US coasts, including a Washington, DC mansion where he recently hosted a party for capital elite including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Despite his divorce last year, Mr Bezos, 56, is worth an estimated $131.3 billion, according to Forbes.