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More Trail Blazers NewsTrail Blazers LinksA steady flow of red ink engulfing Paul Allen's investment empire has prompted the nation's third-richest man to impose an unprecedented austerity program on his once free-spending companies. The Microsoft co-founder's vast fortune has been nearly halved -- from $40 billion to $21 billion -- by the decline of the stock market and other setbacks, according to one 2002 estimate. Since fall, companies in which Allen has invested heavily have laid off thousands of employees and implemented other measures to cut costs. Some companies have been sold, others disbanded. The new era of restraint within Allen's world hit Portland this month when the Trail Blazers and Oregon Arena Corp. laid off a third of their staffs. The cutbacks came after a team of financial analysts from Allen's Seattle headquarters company, Vulcan Inc., pored over the Blazers' books and deemed the team's costs to be well beyond NBA norms. Similar reviews are taking place throughout Allen's vast portfolio as his financial operatives send out a clear message: The Paul Allen gravy train has left the station and may not be coming back. "Paul Allen owns 94 companies, and every one of them got looked at over the last year," said Tim McNamara, general manager of Rose City Radio in Portland, one of Allen's holdings. "Some will be sold, some will be shut down, some will cut costs, some will be invested in further." The new discipline has hit Allen's biggest holdings and some of his smallest. Charter Communications, the nation's fourth-largest cable operator and Allen's single-largest investment, laid off 1,500 in the first quarter of 2003. Rose City Radio, owner of an AM and an FM station in Portland, laid off four employees earlier this month. |
