TRAILBLAZER
Crisis hits the company But the road to success is often beset with obstacles to overcome and , during the early years of Anschutz Corporation , a fire broke out in the Wyoming oil field he was working on . Anschutz had no financial provision for such a disaster .
At that time , the famous firefighter Red Adair was having his biopic filmed by Universal Pictures . Anschutz sold the rights to Universal to film Adair extinguishing the fire on his oilfield . He then used his fee ($ 100,000 ) as payment to Adair for his services and invested the rest into developing the oilfields .
The move meant he could grow the business significantly and develop more profit streams . By 1975 , he had bought oil fields in Colorado , Texas , Montana and Wyoming . He ’ d also purchased uranium and coal mines as well as developing an innovative seismic drilling technology , which , by 1980 , had been responsible for locating a billion-dollar oil field under his own home ranch on the Utah-Wyoming border .
Philip Anschutz , Businessman and financier , AEG
Anschutz sold the oilfield for US $ 500mn to Mobil , which was the springboard capital that seeded the rest of his investment career .
A move into telecoms and travel In 1975 , Anschutz started to explore other industries – most notably , the railroad and telecoms industry . He decided to revamp older , disused lines and , by 1984 , had acquired Rio Grande Industries , which owned the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad .
The price at purchase was US $ 90mn . And he later bought Southern Pacific Railroad for more than US $ 1bn . However , Anschutz had a clear , long-term vision : after investing in new tracks and trains , he then sold the venture to Union Pacific Railroad for US $ 5.4bn in 1996 , netting himself more than US $ 1bn in the process , while also becoming one of Union Pacific ’ s largest shareholders .
Internet opportunities Anschutz always had a keen eye for opportunity , and , using his railroad rightsof-way , he installed fibre optic cables for telecom companies . He also laid extra cables for himself . By 1995 , he was able to use his own fibre network to create Qwest Communications , a leader of the decade ’ s dot com boom .
At the height of his wealth , Anschutz accrued a net worth of US $ 15bn , but all was not well and , when Qwest Communications ’ stock crashed following the dot com collapse , several of his leading company
18 August 2022