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After a yearslong search, Rupert Murdoch, the 93-year-old billionaire media mogul, appears to have finally found a buyer for his nearly 7,000-square-foot penthouse in New York City, close to the Flatiron building and Madison Square Park.
Back in the summer, Murdoch slashed the price to $28.5 million, about half its original listing price, in his latest bid to sell the property.
The nonagenarian finally parted ways with the penthouse for $23.8 million, according to the Robb Report.
Compass, the real estate agency carrying the listing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The former chair of the Fox Corporation and News Corp., who married his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova, in June at his private vineyard in Bel-Air, California, briefly listed the three-floor apartment for $72 million in 2015. In 2022, Murdoch apparently listed it in earnest, asking for $62 million.
In the years since the listing price steadily dropped. After briefly being taken off the market in December 2023, the property was re-listed in April for $38.5 million, nearly half its original price tag. Two months later, it was slashed by a further $10 million.
The apartment may have very well been a thorn in Murdoch's newlywed bliss β although not aΒ hugeΒ thorn perhaps, given Murdoch is worth $12 billion per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Take a look inside the $23.8 million penthouse apartment.
After calling it quits with his third wife, Wendi Deng, in 2013, Murdoch was on the lookout for a new bachelor pad.
In their divorce settlement, Deng, who was married to Murdoch for 14 years, kept the Fifth Avenue triplex the couple bought for $44 million in 2005, New York Magazine reported.
Murdoch purchased two apartments at One Madison Square, a luxury condominium at the start of Madison Avenue, built in 2011. He purchased the building's three-floor penthouse for $43 million, along with a slightly smaller unit on 57th floor in 2014.
Curbed reported that Murdoch initially lived in the smaller apartment β if you can call 3,300 square feet small β until the penthouse was completed.
The apartment was constructed by architect Jose Ramirez, who specializes in luxury interior design, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Per the listing, the first level has an open-plan layout, comprised of a double-height "Great Room" connected to a 586-square-foot terrace overlooking Manhattan, a dining room, kitchen, library, and bathroom.
A spiral staircase and elevator connect the first floor to the second, which houses two bedrooms with en suites and staff quarters.
Another staircase and elevator go up to the third floor, with two more bedrooms with en suites and an expansive primary suite.
Less than a year after buying the penthouse pre-completion, Murdoch briefly put it back on the market for a whopping $72 million, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015.
Around the same time, Murdoch bought a $25 million townhouse in the West Village.
Murdoch changed his mind again five months later, taking the penthouse off the market and, instead, putting the townhouse back on, Curbed reported.
Murdoch relisted the penthouse in 2022, leading some to question if the Australian was done with the Big Apple, where he's had a base since the 1970s after buying The New York Post.
If Murdoch had been looking to move out of NYC, he would've had plenty of other homes to live in.
As Architectural Digest reported, the Murdoch family has a "staggering" real-estate portfolio, which includes an Australian ranch, a $28.8 million California vineyard, and an apartment in London's ritzy Mayfair neighborhood.
The New York Times last year reported that Murdoch bought a seven-bedroom apartment on the 27th floor of a historic building overlooking Central Park for $35.2 million.
Selling a lavish pad is no easy feat in 2024.
As BI's real estate reporter Alcynna Lloyd previously reported, a number of celebrities and ultrawealthy homeowners β particularly those with property in NYC β found themselves in similar positions to Murdoch.
Kenny Lee, a senior economist at StreetEasy, told Lloyd that a slowdown in demand is at the crux of a real-estate slump.
It's even led some wealthy homeowners to auction or rent their pricey digs, an option Murdoch may no longer consider after washing his hands with his former bachelor pad.
President-elect Donald Trump has long been associated with wealth. Trump, as his supporters like to say, was famously a businessman before he became president β or the host of a reality TV show. Even a young Barack Obama mentioned him as the epitome of success that Americans craved.
While some have questioned how successfully he ran his real-estate empire there is no arguing that he is now very rich. The net worth of the president-elect sits at $6.1 billion, according to Forbes' estimates as of December 6.
As Trump prepares for a second term as president, it looks as if like attracts like: He counts several billionaires among his advisors and cabinet nominees.
Trump's first-term cabinet was the wealthiest in modern times and included several multimillionaires among its ranks, including centimillionaires Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin. Betsy DeVos, his former Secretary of Education, and her family were worth $2 billion when she held office, Forbes reported. More billionaires, including Diane Hendricks and Isaac Perlmutter, were among his early advisors.
There will be more clarity about the net worths of Trump's current cabinet picks and his remaining nominees when they file public financial disclosures due soon after their nominations become official.
These disclosures will also bring to light any conflicts of interest, which often result in large divestments. For example, in 2017, Steven Mnuchin, then the Treasury secretary nominee, agreed to divest from 43 companies and investments to comply with those standards.
Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in some cases, nominees from the private equity or venture capital worlds may find it difficult to divest their assets in time.
Vincent Viola, a Florida billionaire and Trump's pick to be Army secretary in 2017, withdrew his name from consideration after it became clear how difficult it would be to disentangle his financial holdings.
"You have to be prepared to divest of any asset," Canter told Business Insider. "The president needs to be able to call on any member of their cabinet and all of their senior officials, right? And not have to worry about whether by calling them and asking for their advice on a particular matter" they would create a criminal conflict of interest.
Here are the billionaires advising President-elect Trump and how rich they are. The net worths are based on Forbes estimates as of December 6 unless otherwise stated.
Elon Musk is by far the richest person to sign up to work for Trump, with a net worth of $355 billion.
Musk, the cohead ofΒ Trump's government efficiency commission, will work with conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy outside the federal government on the "Department of Government Efficiency." The duo has said they want to cut more than $2 trillion from the federal budget.
For now, Musk, the world's richest man, is not subject to divestment requirements as he's outside the Trump administration. Ethics experts say it remains to be seen if DOGE will meet the definition of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This 1970s-era law sought to bring order to the external and sometimes secretive panels that advised the federal government. If DOGE does, Musk and Ramaswamy may be required to file financial disclosure forms. Most critically, DOGE may also have to hold open meetings and make its records available to the public.
Musk's approach to the federal government may mirror the one he takes at his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, which has made him very rich. His stakes in EV company Tesla β he owns about 13% of the trillion-dollar company β and rocket manufacturer SpaceX make up the bulk of his fortune.
Musk is known for his "hardcore" management style and has shown no problem conducting extensive layoffs, requiring his teams to work "long hours at a high intensity," and relentlessly cutting corporate perks.
He spent about $119 million boosting Trump's campaign β and his bet on the president-elect paid off. Since the election, Musk's fortune has grown by about $90 billion. The success of his companies, particularly SpaceX, has been tied to the government before. The New York Times reported that Tesla and SpaceX signed nearly $3 billion of government contracts last year.
Investor banker Warren Stephens is Trump's nominee to be the next US ambassador to Britain.
Stephens, who is worth $3.4 billion, operates the Little Rock, Arkansas-based investment bank, Stephens Inc., which has been tied to his family since the 1930s. The firm was a major player in Walmart's 1970 IPO and later helped finance the construction of the Superdome, home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
The ambassador to the Court of St. James, as the post is formally known, is considered one of the poshest assignments in the foreign service. Presidents often name major donors to the role. Trump's first ambassador to the UK was Woody Johnson, co-owner of the NFL's New York Jets.
Stephens donated $3.5 million to pro-Trump causes, including $2 million to Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC for the former president.
Stephens hasn't always been supportive of Trump. In 2016, he donated $2 million to a group trying to block him, The New York Times reported. Before Trump locked up the nomination, Stephens supported Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
"Over the last 38 years, while serving as the President, Chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist," Trump wrote in his statement announcing Stephens' nomination.
Trump has chosen Jared Isaacman, who is worth $1.8 billion, to head up NASA.
A high school dropout, Isaacman made his money through two companies: payment processing firm Shift4, which is publicly traded, and aviation venture Draken International, which he sold to Blackstone.
Isaacman would bring real space experience to his role as NASA administrator.
He's been to space twice on SpaceX's civilian flights that he funded and he conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September.
Isaacman said that leading NASA would be "the honor of a lifetime."
Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, is worth more than $1.5 billion thanks to his decades on Wall Street. He's been CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm, since 1991 and of its spinoff brokerage firm, BGC Partners, since its formation. Cantor Fitzgerald's deals include Johnson & Johnson's $1.9 billion acquisition of Ambrx.
In addition to his work at Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is chairman of the Newmark Group, a roughly $2.6 billion commercial real estate giant.
Trump said that Lutnick would be his point person on trade, even though the US Trade representative, a Cabinet-level post, typically fills that role. If confirmed, Lutnick would oversee 13 agencies, including the Census Bureau and the Patent and Trademark Office. During Trump's first term, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, another former banker, was central to the White House's trade war with China.
Musk will co-lead the DOGE with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy, who made his fortune in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, is worth $1.1 billion.
He founded Roivant Sciences, a drug company that went public in 2021. The company has a market cap of nearly $9 billion, and Ramaswamy, who was the company's CEO before stepping down in 2021 to focus on politics, owns about 10% of its outstanding shares.
In 2022, Ramaswamy cofounded Strive Asset Management, an investment company that takes a non-ESG approach to money management. The company counts Vice President-elect JD Vance, who attended law school with Ramaswamy, as an investor.
Like Vance and Trump, Ramaswamy built his political reputation on the foundation of his business experience. Ramaswamy was harshly critical of corporate ESG and DEI initiatives, which he railed against in his 2021 best-selling book "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam."
During the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, Ramaswamy stood out from the rest of the field by just how much he embraced Trump β a sign of loyalty that he quickly noticed. Despite his lack of political experience, Ramaswamy repeatedly qualified for debates while other more conventional picks struggled to meet the polling and donor thresholds. He dropped out of the field after finishing fourth in the Iowa Republican caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump.
During the summer, Ramaswamy bought a stake in BuzzFeed to remodel the online publication in his conservative image.
Steven Witkoff will serve as Trump's special Middle East envoy, as well as the cochair of his inaugural committee.
A real estate developer, Witkoff is worth at least $1 billion thanks to his stake in the development company the Witkoff Group, which is responsible for luxury condos, hotels, and office space across the country, and his personal portfolio of homes in New York City, the Hamptons, and Florida. He's also partnered with Trump on the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial.
Witkoff, like many on this list and in the broader Trump cabinet, has no formal experience in his role. During Trump's first term, the president-elect relied on Jared Kushner, his wealthy son-in-law, to play a similar role, which later resulted in the Abraham Accords, a series of deals to normalize relations between Israel and four Arab states.
Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, is likely a billionaire β though Forbes has not yet crowned him one.
A Wall Street veteran, Bessent has worked for George Soros twice and was behind two of the financier's most lucrative bets, the shorting of the British pound and Japanese yen. In 2017, he launched his own firm, Key Square Capital, which has struggled to produce consistent returns.
While he has supported Democrats in the past, Bessent is now fully aligned with Trump. This election cycle, he donated $3 million to Trump-aligned PACs and Republican committees.
Bessent prevailed amid intense private jockeying to lead the Treasury Department, securing the role without Musk's blessing, who had backed Lutnick instead. Markets reacted positively to Bessent's appointment, but Trump soon clarified that this more conventional pick would not limit his tariff commitment.
Linda McMahon, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, is the cochair of his transition team and led the Small Business Administration during the president-elect's first term.
According to multiple reports, McMahon hoped to be named Commerce Secretary, but that post fell to Lutnick after failing to get the Treasury Department role.
She doesn't have much experience in education policy, but she has spent the past few years leading the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that many in Trump's orbit flocked to after he lost the 2020 election.
When he announced her role, Trump pledged that McMahon would champion school choice, a long-sought-after conservative goal to allow public funds to cover the costs of sending children to private and charter schools. Some in the Republican Party have even argued for the dissolution of the Education Department entirely and ceding the policymaking power to state and local governments.
While not a billionaire in her own right, McMahon donated $15 million to Trump's campaign and is married to Vincent McMahon, the former executive chairman of WWE-owner TKO Group Holdings, worth $3 billion.
The McMahons cofounded and ran WWE, and Linda served as CEO for over a decade. Vincent resigned from TKO's board of directors earlier this year after a former employee filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual misconduct.