What is David H. Murdoch's Net Worth?
David H. Murdoch is an American businessman and philanthropist who has a net worth of $3.7 billion dollars. Born April 11, 1923, David H. Murdoch relocated to Detroit after the war, where he became homeless and destitute. A chance encounter with a good Samaritan, he got a $1,200 loan to buy a closing diner and managed to flip it for a $700 profit ten months later. He moved to Arizona worked first in housing and then commercial real estate. When the real estate market collapsed in the '60s, he moved to Los Angeles where he continued developing real estate opportunities, leading to a string of acquisitions. In 1978 he acquired control of International Mining and in the early '80s he became the largest shareholder in Occidental Petroleum by selling the company his 18 percent interest in Iowa Beef.
In 1985, Murdock took over the nearly bankrupt Hawaiian firm Castle & Cooke, which owned pineapple and banana producer Dole Food Company. He developed Castle & Cooke's real estate portfolio into residential and commercial properties and turned Dole into the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables. He acquired Dole privately in 2003 and completed a $446 million initial public offering in October 2009 and the company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DOLE until a private merger agreement was approved October 31, 2013. As a result of the Castle & Cooke purchase, Murdock acquired ownership of 98% of Lana'i, the sixth largest island in Hawaii. In June 2012, he sold his interest in Lana'i to American businessman Larry Ellison. Forbes ranked Cohen as the 190th-richest person in the "Forbes 400" list and 613th in the "World's Billionaires" list as of March 2013. Murdock also owns some manufacturing companies and cancer-drug developer NovaRx, where his son Justin is CEO. At Duke in North Carolina, he is funding a major study examining the leading causes of illness and death.
