Millionaire media mogul Byron Allen snaps up 11,000-square-foot $100 million Malibu mansion
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Billionaire media mogul Byron Allen has bought a luxurious mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean for a whopping $100 million — the most an African American in the United States has ever spent on a home.
The 11,000-square-foot estate in Malibu’s coveted Paradise Cove enclave sits on a 3.5-acre property on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
It sits right next to an approximately $190 million property owned by WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, and is adjacent to other famous residents such as actress Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
It features a large four-bedroom house with patios overlooking the ocean and two small guest houses. It also includes a lush garden, a dedicated cinema room, a tennis court and a gym in one of the guest suites.
Staff quarters with a kitchen are located next to the three-car garage, while above the garage are two guest suites, each with bathrooms and terraces, and one with a kitchenette.
One of the more unusual features of the area is a winding path that allows the homeowner to drive a golf cart or other small vehicle directly to the beach.
The home was first built in 2001 and put up for sale in May by heiress Tammy Hughes Gustavson, who asked for $127.5 million for the property.
Millionaire media mogul Byron Allen, 61, has bought a luxurious Malibu mansion for $100 million — the most an African American in the United States has ever spent on a home
Allen started out as a comedian at age 14 before starting his own media company in 1993. He is estimated at $500 million
The mention told potential buyers at the time that they could “discover absolute nirvana in this world-class Oceanfront Estate.”
To get to the main house, it says, homeowners must ‘enter through the private gate into the long driveway that winds past the tennis court, detached guest house and expansive lawns and leads to the ornate two-storey main house’.
‘This beautiful villa offers a casually elegant style and a peaceful atmosphere with walls of glass doors opening to large terraces that surround the house and allow the light-filled interior to integrate with the lavish exterior and enveloping ocean views,’ Jade Mills, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Realty, wrote.
She added that the “exceptional oceanfront complex offers the ultimate resort lifestyle, nestled on one of the most incredible cliffs and beaches in the world.”
It was previously owned by Gustavson’s late father, B Wayne Hughes, who bought the mansion in 2003 for about $20 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
He had made a fortune in 1972 co-founding the self-storage giant Public Storage and had passed away last year.
Allen, 61, started out as a stand-up comedian, making his first routine at age 14 and appearing in amateur comedy clubs in the Los Angeles area during his teens. He is pictured here with Skip Stephenson in an undated photo from NBC Universal
On his show Entertainers with Byron Allen, he interviewed and profiled film and television stars. Allen is pictured here with Brooke Burns at the Comic Unleased party in September 2006
Allen earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year. He is pictured with Jon Kelley, CEO of The Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr., Kevin Frazier, Leron Gubler, Nicole Mihalka, president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and Lupita Sanchez Cornejo
The house is now just Allen’s most recent real estate purchase. He also owns properties in Aspen, New York, Maui and Beverly Hills.
Allen, 61, started out as a stand-up comedian, making his first routine at age 14 and appearing in amateur comedy clubs in the Los Angeles area during his teens.
His big break came when comedian Jimmie Walker saw Allen’s stand-up act and invited the then 14-year-old to join his comedy writing team with Jay Leno and David Letterman.
By the time he was 18, Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, becoming the youngest stand-up comedian on the show — being paid just $25 a joke.
One of his first roles was as a regular TV host on the NBC reality series Real People, where he joined the cast in their premiere season in 1980 at the age of 19.
He founded Entertainment Studios in 1993 from his dinner table with the launch of his Entertainers with Byron Allen series, a weekly hour-long interview series that profiles movie and television stars.
As the sole owner of the company — he couldn’t find investors when he started his venture — Allen has since invested $1 billion to buy nearly 30 ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS affiliates nationwide, and more than $1 billion. $500 million to buy cable networks.
In 2009, he launched six 24-hour networks: Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, Cars.TV, ES.TV and MyDestination.TV.
The production company also released films, including the thriller ’47 Meters Down’, Christian Bale’s ‘Hostiles’ and the Ted Kennedy biopic ‘Chappaquiddick’.
In 2018, Entertainment Studios acquired The Weather Channel from NBCUniversal, Bain Capital and Blackstone Inc for $300 million.
And in 2019, he partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group in Diamond Sports Group to acquire regional Fox Sports Networks, which The Walt Disney Company agreed to sell as a condition of its purchase of 21st Century Fox and rebranded Diamond Holding Group as Bally sports.
He was recently one of the finalists who bought the Denver Broncos NFL team, but lost to the Walton Penner Group – headed by Walmart heir Rob Walton
Allen earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year and is now estimated at $4.5 billion.
Allen founded Entertainment Studios in 2009 with the launch of his Entertainers with Byron Allen series, a weekly hour-long interview series that profiles movie and television stars.
He recently made headlines for suing McDonald’s for allegedly choosing not to place ads on black-owned networks, costing them millions in potential annual revenue.
In the $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit, Allen alleges that despite black people making up 40 percent of the fast food market, McDonald’s is relegating black networks to an “African-American level” and giving them only $5 million — 0.3 percent — of its $1.6 Billion Advertising Budget Allocates.
Last month, the trial was given the go-ahead when U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin of Los Angeles said he felt Allen had a right to prove his case, citing allegations made by Entertainment Studios since its founding in 2009. had tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get a contract from McDonald’s, whose “racist” corporate culture was hurting him.
“All things considered, and construed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, plaintiffs have presented sufficient facts to support an inference of intentional discrimination,” Olguin wrote in his decision.
‘[The decision] has nothing to do with the substance of the case, but Mr. Allen will simply continue to try, as he has for over a year now, to substantiate his speculative and persuasive claims,” Lynch said. “We believe the evidence will show that there was no discrimination and that the claims from Entertainment Studios are unfounded.’
However, Allen said in a statement that the case was about the economic integration of African-American-owned companies into the U.S. economy. McDonald’s takes billions from African American consumers and gives almost nothing in return.”
Olguin dismissed an earlier draft of Allen’s lawsuit last November and found no evidence of intentional and purposeful discrimination against his companies.
In May 2021, McDonald’s pledged to increase national ad spend with Black-owned media from 2 percent to 5 percent by 2024.