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This
profile considers Philip Anschutz and the Clarity group.
It covers -
introduction
US billionaire Philip Anschutz (oil, railways, telecommunications)
has expanded into cinema and sports centre operation and
into free daily newspapers (through the Clarity group).
Clarity and Anschutz Entertainment
Clarity centres on the Examiner newspapers in
San Francisco (once the flagship of WR Hearst),
Washington and Baltimore.
Anschutz Entertainment Group includes major venues in
the US and UK and sports teams.
Anschutz
Philip F. Anschutz (1939- ) is the son of Fred Anschutz,
founder of Kansas-based oil and gas company Circle A Drilling.
He graduated from Kansas University in 1961 with a degree
in finance and assumed control of Circle A, at that time
in difficulty, making major discoveries in north Utah
during the late-1970s.
Anschutz sold most of his oil interests to Mobil in 1982
for around US$500 million, acquiring control of the Denver
& Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1984 and the Southern
Pacific Railroad in 1988. During the 1990s, as the dotcom
and telecommunications bubbles gathered pace, he expanded
into long-distance and local telecommunications (initially
through rolling out fibre along the railroads' right of
way).
Anschutz's rail operations were less than stellar - the
New York Times characterised his 1996 merger
of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads as
"the most spectacular merger fiasco of modern times"
- but he was able to build large-scale telecommunication
networks and then acquire regional operators, notably
US West (the core of what is now Qwest).
Qwest Communications went public in 1997, with Anschutz
as the principal stockholder (with 17% as of 2004) reportedly
having a paper worth of US$4.9 billion (on an initial
US$55 million investment) before the bubble collapsed.
He faced criticism for trading in Qwest stock, claimed
as inconsistent with Christian values evident in funding
of anti-Gay campaigns in the US and religious-themed film
production. In 2002 Fortune tartly characterised
him as the nation's "greediest executive".
Apart from a major stake in Qwest the Denver-based Anschutz
Corporation includes ownership of the Los Angeles Kings
(professional hockey) and five European hockey clubs,
four Major League Soccer teams and interests in the Los
Angeles Lakers (basketball). Property holdings include
the London Millennium Dome, Los Angeles' Staples Center
and major rural holdings.
Anschutz also controls United Artists and Regal Cinemas,
Inc, with over 6,061 screens (roughly 20% of the cinemas
in the US), along with minor film/video production interests,
centred on Walden Media. National CineMedia, a joint venture
with AMC and Cinemark, sells in-cinema ads and operates
a network for distribution of digital content to cinemas.
Anschutz acquired a controlling equity interest in Regal
(and some 79% of voting rights) through the bankruptcy
reorganisation of United Artists cinema chain (2001),
the Edwards chain (2001) and Regal Cinemas, Inc (2002).
He merged those entities, with Regal subsequently acquiring
cinemas from Hoyts (later controlled by Packer).
In a 2004 speech he commented that he entered the film
production business because he wanted to stop "cursing
the darkness".
holdings
Anschutz' holdings as of late 2006 included -
- Qwest
(17%)
- Union
Pacific Railroad (6%.)
- Regal
Cinemas (51%) - Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, United
Artists Theatre Company, and Hoyts Cinema brands
- Walden
Media (inc Crusader film production company)
- National
CineMedia joint venture
- Examiner
newspapers (San Francisco, Washington, Baltimore)
-
Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal
and Northern Virginia Journal
- SF
City Star
- Overland
Trail Cattle Ranch (312,170 acres) and other ranching
interests
- Los
Angeles Lakers (30%)
- Staples
Center (60%)
- Millennium
Dome (London)
- Los
Angeles Kings (90%)
- five
major league soccer teams in US (inc San Jose Earthquakes)
- pro
hockey franchises in Europe (eg London Knights) and
two minor league teams in US
- Concerts
West and Goldenvoice
studies
There are no major biographies of Anschutz or studies
of Clarity. He features in accounts of Qwest and the US
telecommunications bubble, such as Martin Fransman's lucid
Telecoms in the Internet Age: From Boom To Bust To?
(Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 2002), Broadbandits: Inside
the $750 Billion Telecom Heist (New York: Wiley 2003)
by Om Malik and Telebomb: The Truth Behind the $500-Billion
Telecom Bust and What the Industry Must Do to Recover
(New York: Amacom 2005) by John Handley.
chronology
1982 Anschutz sells most oil interests to Mobil for around
US$500m
1984 acquires control of Rio Grande Industries (Denver
& Rio Grande Western Railroad)
1988 Rio Grande acquires control of Southern Pacific Railroad
1996 merges Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads
1997 takes Qwest Communications public
2000 Qwest acquires US West in US$36.5bn merger
2001 MIG (Kluge-controlled Metromedia
International Group) sells MetroStars soccer team to Philip
Anschutz
2001 Anschutz-backed Meridian Delta acquires London Millennium
Dome
2002 Qwest sells its print directories operations for
US$7bn
2002 collapse of Qwest Digital Media (joint venture with
Qwest)
2003 Regal buys 52 theaters from Hoyts Cinemas for US$213m
2004 Clarity buys San Francisco Examiner for
est. US$20m
2004 buys Journal Newspapers Inc (Montgomery Journal,
Prince George's Journal and Northern Virginia
Journal)
2005 Regal and AMC form joint venture National CineMedia
2005 launches Washington Examiner
2005 Southern California companies pay US$300m to Anschutz
Pinedale Corp. for 38 oil and gas wells
2006 launches Baltimore Examiner
2006 launch SF City Star
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