Largest Landowner in USA

[Hum]

On the Colorado High Plains, John Malone sits in a generous -- but not grandiose -- corner office on the second floor of a blocky, granite-faced building in a nondescript corporate park in Englewood. If, in real estate, location is everything, it's curious that the largest private landowner in America chose an office location, an hour from downtown Denver.

But the building and its location are Malone writ large: standalone, brawny, and commanding views of clean sky and snowcapped mountains shining like chrome in the distance. Malone, 71, whose thick hair is as white and flawless as his wrinkle-free shirt, sits behind his desk wearing an elegant rose-colored tie and tells a visitor, "My wife and I are going to look at something that's for sale on Friday."

By "something" Malone means land. Given that in 2011 Malone bought 1.2 million acres of Maine woodlands, thereby surpassing his old friend Ted Turner as the nation's largest private landowner, one might view the Friday shopping trip as a touch superfluous. Malone doesn't. He's got the land bug, thanks in part to Turner, now the second-largest private landowner in America, with whom he has a fond rivalry. If, as the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel posited, "property is the first embodiment of freedom," Malone is one liberated individual. According to The Land Report magazine, he now owns an estimated 2.2 million acres of U.S. cropland, ranch land, and woodland, an area about three times the size of Rhode Island. (The largest landowner in the world is Queen Elizabeth II, because technically she owns places like Australia and Canada.)

Malone is the founder and chairman of Liberty Media (LMCA), a major distributor of TV entertainment, sports, and other programming, including Discovery Channel, USA, QVC, Encore, and Starz. In recent years he has successfully spun off businesses and is now free, he says, to spend more of his wealth on land, although it's not clear how much he has invested so far in his holdings. But he can afford it. After years of wheeling and dealing, Malone is worth an estimated $5 billion.

Essentially, after a mind-numbing series of mergers and stock splits, spinoffs and standoffs, Malone emerged on the sunny side of some of the biggest business deals in the history of telecommunications. At one point or another, he has owned stakes in Sprint (S), Interactive Corp., Motorola (MSI), Time Warner (TWX), News Corp. (NWSA), AT&T (T), Sirius XM (SIRI), and even analog media like Barnes & Noble (BKS).

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[Growled Member]

Wow, I'm impressed. I came into this thread thinking I would find out that the US government was the largest landowner.

[Rohdekill]

I'd hate to see that guy's property tax.

[neufuse Veteran]

Wow, I'm impressed. I came into this thread thinking I would find out that the US government was the largest landowner.

Malone is the largest "private" land owner in the USA, the US Gov is still the largest land owner, virtually owning most of the mid west as most of it is not inhabited so the US gov took over it

United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land, Malone only owns 2,200,000 acres

I'd hate to see that guy's property tax.

most of his land is in areas that don't have property taxes, most of the midwest is like that

[Hum]

Think I'll ask him to buy me an island.