Trailblazer: Philip Anschutz, tycoon extraordinaire
Philip Frederick Anschutz was born on December 28, 1939 in Kansas, and made his debut at a time when the Western world was in crisis. Hitler had invaded Poland and began his steady march across Europe. The US would not enter the fray for another four years – but the reverberations of war rippled towards the US, regardless
At the time, the American Midwest was still recovering from the fallout of the Great Depression, and as is common in the wake of disaster, the opportunists made their mark. One such man was Fred Anschutz, Philip’s father, who worked as a “wildcatter”, more commonly described as an “independent driller of exploratory oil wells”.
The wheels of industry were turning rapidly in the United States at the time, and the demand for more power to fuel the growing number of factories and industrial estates—as well as the growing automobile industry—was enormous.
The family moved to Wichita, where Fred Anschutz found contracting success and Philip attended high school. A keen student, he went on to study for a finance degree at the University of Kansas, graduating with honors in 1961.
Immerse yourself in the industry
With his abiding interest in economic legal issues, Anschutz had planned to complete a doctorate in law at the University of Virginia. Before starting his first semester, however, he returned to Wichita to take over the family business, Circle A Drilling, which was struggling due to his father’s descent into alcoholism and subsequent series of health problems.
With his keen business acumen and knowledge of the financial markets, Anschutz soon got the company back on its feet and flourishing. But his foray into business management in the energy industry had whetted his appetite for big business—so he moved to Denver, the heart of the industry, to start his own company, the Anschutz Corporation, in 1965.
The crisis hits the company
But the path to success is often marked by obstacles to overcome, and during the early years of the Anschutz Corporation, a fire broke out in the Wyoming oil field he was working on. Anschutz had no financial means for such a disaster.
At that time, the famous fireman Red Adair had his biography archived by Universal Pictures. Anschutz sold the rights to Universal to film Adair putting out the fire at his oil field. He then used the fee ($100,000) as payment to Adair for his services and invested the rest in developing the oil fields.
The move meant he could significantly expand the business and develop multiple profit streams. By 1975 he had bought oil fields in Colorado, Texas, Montana and Wyoming. He had also bought uranium and coal mines in addition to developing an innovative seismic drilling technology, which in 1980 had been responsible for locating a billion-dollar oil field beneath his own home ranch on the Utah-Wyoming border.
Anschutz sold the oil field for $500 million to Mobil—which was the springboard that launched the rest of his investment career.
A transition to telecoms and travel
In 1975, Anschutz began to explore other industries – particularly the railroad and telecom industries. He decided to renew older, defunct lines and in 1984 had acquired Rio Grande Industries, which owned the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
The purchase price was USD 90 million. And he later bought the Southern Pacific Railroad for more than $1 billion. Anschutz, however, had a clear, long-term vision: after investing in new rails and trains, he then sold the venture to Union Pacific Railroad for $5.4 billion in 1996, giving himself more than $1 billion in the process, while became one of Union Pacific’s largest shareholders.
Internet possibilities
Always with a keen eye for opportunity, Anschutz, using his railroad rights, installed fiber optic cables for telecom companies. He also added extra cables for himself. In 1995, he was able to use his own fiber network to create Qwest Communications, a leader of the decade’s dot com boom.
At the height of his wealth, Anschutz accumulated a net worth of $15 billion, but all was not well, and when Qwest Communications’ stock crashed after the dot com collapse, several of his top company executives were convicted of insider trading and fraud.
Sports and entertainment
By 2000, Anschutz—still reeling from the collapse of Qwest Communications—decided to invest in the sports and entertainment industry. He was responsible for establishing Major League Soccer and at one point financially supported six leading teams. Anschutz still owns the LA Galaxy team to this day. After these investments, he began working in the film industry.
He launched Walden Media – a production company specializing in family-friendly films with a moral message. The studio’s box office winners included Chronicles of Narnia trilogy and Jet.
Anschutz manages its companies under an umbrella group entity called Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns several arenas and sports teams internationally.
In fact, AEG Presents is number two in the world after Live Nation and has staged some of the world’s biggest concerts, from Michael Jackson’s ill-fated ‘This Is It’ tour in 2009 to Coachella.
Hotels and hospitality
Not content with playing a major role in the entertainment industry, Anschutz moved into hotels. By 2010, he had added news channels, including San Francisco Examiner, to his portfolio. In 2009, he bought the conservative political magazine The weekly standard from Rupert Murdoch.
His latest purchases include a number of American hotels with iconic reputations. He owns the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs and the Xanterra chain of luxury lodges.
A family man
Yet despite his incredibly lavish lifestyle, Anschutz has never attracted media attention, instead leading a surprisingly low-profile existence over the decades. For example, he married his childhood sweetheart, Nancy, whom he met when he was 16. The couple’s three children have enjoyed a singularly private life because Anschutz prefers to maintain a secluded lifestyle. Currently residing in Denver, he lives modestly, eschews the idea of having a driver, and can sometimes be seen outside one of his hotels, wearing blue jeans and watching his favorite sports teams without being recognized.
