On Lanai island, the Sun will now slowly dim and eventually peter out altogether, leaving the formerly loyal and happy islanders in complete darkness forever.
Larry Ellison buys island 1000x bigger than Branson's
Billionaire CEO Larry Ellison has fulfilled the dream of mega-rich folks everywhere: he has just bought his very own island. Lanai island in Hawaii If you like piña colada... Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority/Pierce M Myers Photography The Oracle chief has snapped up the sixth-largest island in Hawaii, Lanai, in a deal with …
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Thursday 21st June 2012 12:09 GMT Ru
Re: "the antithesis of Google's 'do no evil'"
Sure he is. But that's only because you misunderstood both Ellison and Google's relationship with evil.
They both enjoy a fair bit of evil (you don't get to make billions in any other way, you know), but Ellison has never tried to pass himself off as anything other than a ruthlessly efficient capitalist. The warm fuzzy image that Google generally tries to project is fundamentaly dishonest.
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Friday 22nd June 2012 08:27 GMT Annihilator
Re: Vulcano, submarine dock etc
"Well, Ellison looks much more like a Bond villain than Branson, so it's only right he has the larger island."
Yes but Branson looks very much like Hank Scorpio
"Homer, what's your least favourite country, Italy or France?"
"France"
<moves giant laser>"heh heh, no-one ever says Italy.."
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Thursday 21st June 2012 12:14 GMT Ru
Re: "Will the locals' taxes go to him"
If he owns the land, he can presumably collect rent from its occupants (except those with freeholds or some sort of existing lease arrangement which precludes that sort of thing). Technically it isn't tax, but the end result looks much the same to the people who have to pay it.
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Thursday 21st June 2012 14:35 GMT James Micallef
Re: $500m
"Will the locals' taxes go to him?" Why should it? After all, if I own an apartment block and the land that it's built on, they still pay their taxes to the government, not to me. The people living there would pay rent to him (I guess for examples teh hotels would have some sort of lease payment that would go to him), but any state taxes would still go to Hawaii and federal taxes to Uncle Sam.
On the topic of selling islands though... I think the Greeks are missing a trick, they could sell a hundred or so of their thousands of mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited islands to bring their debt down a bit
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Thursday 21st June 2012 11:06 GMT ukgnome
Owning an island is so last century
What you actually want is one of these
http://www.firebox.com/product/4893/Project-Utopia
"Measuring 100m in length and breadth, and spanning over 11 luxed-out decks, there is enough room on Project Utopia to create an entire micro-nation. It’s ideal for ocean-going megalomaniacs bent on world domination. And you needn’t worry about puking on your Nehru jacket because this floating behemoth is designed for minimum motion, even in the most extreme sea conditions"
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Thursday 21st June 2012 11:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Now he's just got to get it like he wants it.
So at great expense, with many experts holding large amounts of knowledge of it, who know all the little intracacies of this massive and overcomplicated ecosystem, and charge a fortune, will fix the problems, and get it all as it is wanted, and no doubt there will be ridiculously overpriced links to the outside world, as extras, not to mention having to pay a fortune for extra ways of touring its features.
But enough about oricle (tm).
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Thursday 21st June 2012 11:56 GMT John Stirling
The State of Oracle
You're missing the big picture - Hawaii and any of it's component islands have the constitutionally protected right to secede from the US by way of a referendum where more than 80% of the population vote for it. Wait a while while Larry gets the islanders onside then watch him declare independence, and move Oracle there as the first pure corporate state...
Ok, I am completely making all that up - but how cool (and scary) would it be?
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Friday 22nd June 2012 06:00 GMT Rampant Spaniel
Re: $6500 per acre sounds good to me
They are useless as a commercial interest. They are useful as environmental preserves and hunting ranges.
There is a considerable amount of shorefront, but Lana'i lacks a lot of infrastructure. Outside of the harbor \ airport and town there is very limited amounts of real road. Much of it is dirt track. Developing the island would be extremely expensive but is possible. It is however extremely culturally sensitive. Developers (like the current windfarm plan) tend to make reasoned decisions, then screw up the details. A windfarm is not insane, putting it in the middle of a garden of the gods is. So much of Hawai'i is over developed, only Ni'ihau (which is offlimits to none kanaka maoli), Kaho'olawe (uninhabitable due to extensive bombing), Moloka'i and Lana'i really remain as sanctuaries.
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Thursday 21st June 2012 16:07 GMT Wind Farmer
Just about big enough for his ego
You missed your own link to the previous Gates investment: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/07/12/gates_buys_piece_of_pineapple/
Hope Larry retires soon and doesn't bother anyone, but no doubt he'll downsize the island's population, in his typical acquisition mode.
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Thursday 21st June 2012 19:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
In other news, local sharks migrating from Lanai waters in responst to new neighbors!!
I expect that Larry will soon be sitting in one of these on the veranda of his new spread....maybe with some piled up human skulls to complete the mood :)
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/08/hbo_wants_royal_price_for_iron_throne_replica/
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Friday 22nd June 2012 05:44 GMT Rampant Spaniel
We are not looking forward to this :( Lanai is a beautiful, largely unspoilt paradise with a rich cultural heritage. Now apparently some haole wishes to build a wind farm in the garden of the gods. The only reason this vulture wants the island is to make more money. His only care for culture is how much profit it can make.
How many more iwi will be disinterred to make way for hotels, condos etc. Honestly, consider for a second if I acquired your local church, dug up your kupuna and built a casino on it? How would you feel if your culture was disnified and parodied for tourists. You sacred sites and ancestors desecrated in the name of 'progress'. Lanai had hoped for a benevolent owner.
Visitors come here and they go away thinking Hawai'i is about pineapples, protea and pumeria. All entirely introduced by haole post contact. Hawaiians are doing their best to care for their culture, land and sea after generations of assault on all three.
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Friday 22nd June 2012 13:08 GMT Rampant Spaniel
Remember cpt cook!
Mess with the kanaka maoli and they take your mana :-)
I think the state missed a great oppertunity here to obtain the land and lease it for farming purposes. But instead we get a multi billion dollar metro system and expanded roads if there is a golf course at the end of them.
Given the price of food here, I cannot see how farming wouldn't make money on Lana'i. I know geothermal power is contraversial because of Pele (not the footballer) but it should be considered before windfarms.
You have to go for a walk on Lana'i before sunset, wander down dirt track roads and through unspoilt forrests to truly appreciate how valuable it is to have land that doesn't have a costco and maccy dees every 20 yards. Now if Larry gets rid of the concrete ship wreck I might give him a chance.
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Friday 22nd June 2012 13:38 GMT mhenriday
Things have been going badly in Hawaii
ever since the US invaded and deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani back in 1893 (since then, this business of deposing foreign governments and installing puppets seems to have become habitual). Mr Ellison's purchase of the sixth largest island is merely the latest indignity these beautiful islands have suffered. But no doubt, Mr Abercrombie does indeed «look forward to welcoming him»....
Henri