Sid Bass
{{Short description|Texas billionaire and eldest of the billionaire Bass family of Fort Worth}}
{{for|the American songwriter|Sid Bass (songwriter)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sid Bass
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1942|4|9}}
| birth_place = Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
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| education = Yale University
Stanford University
| employer =
| occupation = Investor, philanthropist
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| spouse = Anne Hendricks Bass (divorced)
Mercedes Bass (divorced)
| children = 2, including Hyatt Bass
| parents = Perry Richardson Bass
Nancy Lee Bass
| relatives = Sid W. Richardson (great-uncle)
Lee Bass (brother)
Ed Bass (brother)
Robert Bass (brother)
Josh Klausner (son-in-law)
}}
Sid Richardson Bass (born April 9, 1942) is an American billionaire investor and philanthropist.
Early life and education
Sid Richardson Bass was born on April 9, 1942. His father, Perry Richardson Bass (died 2006), built an oil fortune with uncle, Sid W. Richardson. He graduated from Yale University in 1965,{{cite news | title=Yale Gets Gift of $20 Million From Bass Family (Again) | work=The New York Times | date=1990-10-06 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/06/nyregion/yale-gets-gift-of-20-million-from-bass-family-again.html | accessdate=2011-10-08}} and also has a degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Career
Bass took control of the family business in 1968. His investments include oil and gas. Along with his father and two of his brothers, he was the largest shareholder in The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until after the stock market crash in 2001. Bass was forced to sell his Disney holdings as a result of a margin call. He turned the $50-million family company he inherited into a $14-billion investment group.{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Suzanna |title=Betting the Kingdom {{!}} Vanity Fair |url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2002/3/betting-the-kingdom |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=Vanity Fair {{!}} The Complete Archive |language=en-US}}
He started to unload his Disney shares four days after September 11. 135 million shares were sold, most of them under market value, making the Disney share drop 8.9%. This quick bulk sale was a Wall Street surprise. Some speculated that Bass owed money as a result of a margin call. Others speculated that the Disney deal slowly fell out of Bass' control after his main adviser Richard Rainwater had left in 1986. No official reason was communicated.
In 2007, he had a net worth of US$3 billion.{{cite web
| title = The World's Billionaires No. 275 Sid Bass
|work=Forbes
| date = October 2, 2019
| url = https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#65b5b6697e2f
| accessdate =Dec 27, 2019}}
In 2020, he was ranked No.359 in the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America.{{Cite web|title=Sid Bass|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/sid-bass/|access-date=2020-10-15|website=Forbes|language=en}}
Philanthropy
Bass donated $20 million to Yale University for the study of humanities in 1990. In 2006, Bass and his second wife, Mercedes Bass, made a gift of $25 million to the Metropolitan Opera, at the time the largest individual gift in the company's history.{{cite news | author=Daniel J. Wakin | title=Metropolitan Opera, in Tight Times, Receives Record Gift of $25 Million | work=The New York Times | date=2006-01-05 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/arts/music/05met.html | accessdate=2011-10-08}}
Personal life
His first wife was Anne Hendricks Bass, with whom he had two daughters: author Hyatt Bass and Samantha Bass. He divorced Anne Bass in 1986.{{cite book | title = Sid Bass and Mercedes Kellogg Stun Society | publisher = New York Magazine | date = October 20, 1986 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pOcCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48 | accessdate =Oct 8, 2011}} In 1988, Bass married the Iranian-American socialite Mercedes Bass, formerly Mercedes Kellogg, née Tavacoli. This childless marriage ended in divorce in 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/10/06/3426218/sid-mercedes-bass-to-divorce-after.html |title=Sid, Mercedes Bass to divorce after 23 years | Fort Worth | News from Fort Worth, Dallas |access-date=October 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018061910/http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/10/06/3426218/sid-mercedes-bass-to-divorce-after.html |archive-date=October 18, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}{{Cite news| author=Eric Wilson | title=An '80s Scandal Comes to a Quiet End | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/fashion/the-marriage-of-sid-and-mercedes-bass-now-broken.html | work=New York Times | date=2011-10-14 | accessdate=2014-11-27}}
References
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Category:Businesspeople from Fort Worth, Texas
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni