7 Needlessly Extravagant Purchases by Rich Tech Executives

Who is This Guy?

David Sacks is CEO of Yammer, originally a "social network" tool for individual businesses that has expanded into an all-in-one enterprise platform. In June of 2012, Microsoft purchased Yammer for $1.2 billion.

Background

Before starting Yammer, Sacks had been COO of a little company you may have heard of called PayPal, from 2002 until it was acquired by eBay. After his years of membership in the so-called PayPal Mafia, Sacks founded Geni.com and Room 9 Entertainment, which produced the independent film "Thank You for Smoking."

The Purchase

As acquisition rumors spread about Yammer, Sacks threw himself the mother of all birthday parties, to the tune of $1.4 million. How do you even spend $1.4 million on a birthday party? Instead of pinning the tail on a donkey, you use actual Democratic members of the House of Representatives? You don't just get a Bounce House, but hire a team of scientists to invent a machine that will sufficiently alter gravity in your backyard such that it resembles a Bounce House? What? Tell me!

In addition to the hefty price tag, the theme of Sacks' party raised some 99%-er eyebrows: "Let Him Eat Cake." Yes, it's a canny reference to a famous quote possibly (but probably not) stated by Marie Antoinette, the famous French lady who was met with some amount of public disapproval, as you may recall, way back in 1793. (Thus providing Kirsten Dunst with one of her greatest... well, one of her roles, anyway.)

The party featured hilarious French Revolution-style get-ups and entertainment from none other than Big Snoop Dogg himself. No Tupac holograms, though. He prefers the Gilded Age as his ironically insensitive ultra-expensive historical party setting of choice.


Now THIS is what undead, possibly evil Tupac is talkin' about!

Who Is This Guy?

Henry Thompson “Nick” Nicholas, III, is the co-founder of Fortune 500 company Broadcom, one of the top producers of semiconductors for wireless and broadband communication. He was also the co-Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of that company. In 2009, he was the 236th richest person in America, with a worth of $1.8 billion.

Background

Nicholas became known not only as a leading pioneer of the first tech boom of the 1990s, but also as a philanthropist. When Nicholas was a young man, his sister was murdered by an ex-boyfriend, and as an adult, he has devoted much of his time and resources to the cause of Victims' Rights. He's often credited with keeping California's Three Strikes Laws on the books and championing Marsy's Law, which, among other things, puts restrictions on paroles that often delay prisoner releases.

The Purchase

In 2008, Nicholas was charged with securities fraud by the Justice Department, which was alleging that he had deceived shareholders about employee compensation timelines and essentially lying about Broadcom's profits. Surprising, but not as shocking as the other indictment against Nicholas, for DRUG TRAFFICKING.

As it turns out, Nicholas was living in a sprawling multi-million dollar mansion in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife and 3 children by day... and then going to an elaborate underground hideaway beneath the mansion to engage in debauched, drug-fueled orgies. No, really. He called it "The Lair," folks. THE LAIR.

Nicholas started remodeling his luxurious Laguna Beach home in the 1990s, and by his 2008 arrest, it had ballooned into a $30 million project. He ended up with an interconnected "warren" of rooms - with 12 foot high ceilings - containing everything from stereos and jacuzzis to gold-leaf columns to statues of Buddha to, of course, ample stashes of cocaine, ecstasy, Viagra, speed. Oh, and prostitutes. Many, many prostitutes. (If you're a prostitute and a guy asks you to come with him to a room underneath his house... you really going to go on that particular expedition? Sure, this time, you get some ecstasy and maybe you get to meet a panda or something. But 9 times out of 10, that's ending poorly for you.

On one occasion, Nicholas paid the band Orgy to play in The Lair (for only $50,000!), set up ice sculptures everywhere and was spotted filling unsuspected attendees' drinks with powdered ecstasy pills. Weeeeeee!


The band Orgy. Not depicted: Henry Nicholas, crazy ice sculptures, musical talent

Nicholas later objected to descriptions in the press of his beautiful underground hideaway, specifically references to it as some kind of "sex lair." You know, just because it's a place he called The Lair where he often took women to give them drugs and have sex with them DOESN'T MAKE IT A SEX LAIR, people. Open your minds, okay?

The charges against Nicholas were eventually dropped by the US government, but of course, now the secret about The Lair was already out. Anyone else think they should start holding Laser Pink Floyd down there instead of the Planetarium? No? Just me?