I don't normally like to kick a person when they're down, but when the person you're kicking is worth $62 billion… I think we can make an exception. In case you hadn't heard, Michael Bloomberg just dropped out of the 2020 Presidential race. That comes just four months after he entered the race. Over those months, Mike spent a not-so-mini fortune on his campaign. Did anyone in the US not receive around 10 Bloomberg pamphlets in the mail recently? You literally couldn't avoid his commercials online and on television. It was a truly stunning display of air-wave inundation.
Mike employed 2,500 people around the country. He spent around $400 million on TV ads alone, roughly $40 million leading up to Super Tuesday.
In total, Mike spent a mind-blowing $500 million on his failed campaign. That is the most expensive self-funded campaign of all time.
Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images
For what it's worth, Mike spent a little less than 1% of his net worth on this campaign. He will probably make that $500 million back through interest and dividends in a few years… HOWEVER… one must spend a few minutes chronicling a few things Mike could have bought with that $500 million had he not flirted with politics from November 2019 to March 2020.
Things Mike Bloomberg Could Have Bought With $500 Million:
- 7 Gulfstream G650s ($65m a piece)
- All 200 Ferrari LaFerrari Apertas in existence, with $60m to spare (Ferrari only made 200, at a price of $2.2m per)
- All 24 private islands in the Bahamas currently listed on Sotheby's (including one that costs $75m)
- 7 trips to the International Space Station via the Russian space team ($72m a pop)
- The eternal love of 500 strangers who were each given $1 million in cash
- 5 Vincent Van Gogh paintings
- The TWO least valuable NHL franchises
- One Saudi Prince's Airbus A380 private jet
- He could buy the exact same Beverly Hills real estate Jeff Bezos recently acquired for $255 million and basically do it again
- 1.7 million shares of Apple (which would pay a roughly $5 million annual dividend)
- Speaking of publicly traded companies, Bloomberg could have bought 100% of El Pollo Loco, Cars.com or retailer Chico's (all of which are currently worth around $500m)
- One of the largest yachts in the world with $50 million left over for gas
- Richard Branson's Necker Island with $300 million to spare
- Bill Gates' 66,000 square-foot Washington mansion with $300 million to spare
- A $100 million mansion in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Paris AND London
- Love
