Belief me. This text will finally be about Howard Stern’s Palm Seaside mansion, however first, please comply with me on a journey via time beginning within the early Nineties…
In 1992, lifelong tinkerer John Sylvan got down to remedy a standard downside at workplaces world wide: Full espresso pots sit untouched for hours, rising chilly, bitter, and rancid earlier than being dumped down the sink.
Sylvan’s concept to unravel this downside was to invent a espresso machine that might brew single-serve disposable “pods” of espresso. In 1992, John and a school pal co-founded an organization that might manufacture and promote his machines and pods. They referred to as the corporate “Keurig.” Why? They seemed up the phrase for “excellence” in a Dutch dictionary. Why Dutch? As a result of, as John would later clarify, “everybody likes the Dutch.”
A few decade earlier than Keurig was based, a man named Bob Stiller was served a cup of espresso at a restaurant in Vermont referred to as Inexperienced Mountain. He liked the style a lot that he did not simply purchase one other cup… he purchased the entire espresso store.
By 1992 (the identical yr Keurig was based), Inexperienced Mountain had grown from a single cafe in Vermont to seven areas. Over two thousand wholesale retailers bought Inexperienced Mountain beans, and the corporate generated $10 million in annual income. In 1993, Bob Stiller took Inexperienced Mountain public on the NASDAQ beneath the ticker GMCR.
In 1993, a yr after Keurig was based, Bob Stiller’s Inexperienced Mountain grew to become the primary outdoors investor in John Sylvan’s espresso pod firm. In 1994, Keurig took on a second funding spherical, elevating $1 million from a enterprise capital agency. With that funding, one of many principals from the VC agency was put in as Chairman of Keurig.
Sadly, John Sylvan didn’t get alongside along with his new company bosses. Inside a yr, he was booted from the corporate he based.
In 1997, John bought his whole stake in Keurig, which owned his invention – a product that might finally generate tons of of billions in income – for a grand whole of…
$50,000
Over the course of a number of transactions between 1993 and 2006, Bob Stiller’s Inexperienced Mountain acquired 43% possession of Keurig. In 2006, Inexperienced Mountain acquired the remaining 57%. The worth Inexperienced Mountain paid for that 57%?
$104 million
The corporate was renamed Keurig Inexperienced Mountain.
By 2014, 95% of Keurig Inexperienced Mountain’s income – $4.3 billion – got here from promoting Keurig pods and machines. On December 7, 2015, JAB Holding Firm acquired Keurig Inexperienced Mountain for…
$13.9 billion
The acquisition made Bob Stiller a billionaire. Right now, his internet value is $1.2 billion.
A yr earlier than the $13.9 billion JAB acquisition, Bob paid $25 million for a 1.6-acre, oceanfront property in Palm Seaside, Florida. The property contains a 24,000 sq. foot mansion. In April 2023, Bob Stiller bought his property in an off-market deal to luxurious automotive supplier Michael Cantanucci for…
$170 million
That set a brand new report (which nonetheless stands) for the Palm Seaside space and is without doubt one of the most costly actual property transactions in Florida historical past.
Howard Stern’s Mansion
A yr earlier than Bob purchased his Palm Seaside mansion, Howard Stern and his spouse, Beth Ostrosky Stern, paid $52 million for the three.25-acre property proper subsequent door. Stern’s property options a number of constructions which have a mixed 40,000 sq. ft of residing house.
Now take into account what Bob’s sale means for the worth of Howard and Beth’s property.
Within the picture beneath, Howard’s property is the bigger one on the left. To reiterate, Howard’s buildings have 40,000 sq. ft of residing house. Bob Stiller’s former property has 24,000 sq. ft. Howard’s property is on 3.25 acres. Bob Stiller’s is on 1.6 acres.
So Howard’s property is just below twice the dimensions of Bob’s by way of each residing house and acreage.
And if Bob Stiller’s home bought in 2023 for $170 million, what does that make Howard’s property value? Conservatively, one should assume…
$300 million
By our rely, earlier than the Bob Stiller sale, Howard Stern’s internet value was $650 million. And that was primarily based on an assumption that his Palm Seaside home was value $50 – 80 million. If it is actually value $300 million, one might make the argument that Howard Stern’s internet value is definitely within the $800 million vary.
What Occurred to John Sylvan?
Right now, John Sylvan lives in a wonderfully good dwelling in Needham, Massachusetts, which he purchased in 2007 for $530,000 and in the present day is value round $1.2 million.
Maybe to make up for the environmental destruction brought on by his invention, Sylvan now runs a photo voltaic firm.
Chatting with The Atlantic across the time of Keurig’s $14 billion sale, John Sylvan had the next to say about his invention’s harmful affect on the world:
“I really feel unhealthy typically that I ever invented the Ok-Cup… I haven’t got one. They’re sort of costly to make use of. Plus it is not like drip espresso is hard to make… It is like a cigarette for espresso. A single-serve supply mechanism for an addictive substance… It doesn’t matter what they are saying about recycling, these issues won’t ever be recyclable. The plastic is a specialised plastic made of 4 completely different layers.“
An estimated 10 BILLION pods are bought every year. The huge, huge overwhelming majority find yourself in landfills.
