Texas billionaire's cruelest year (Harold Simmons, GOP attack ad funder)

[Robbien]

Source: Fortune

. . .

Simmons made his first fortune in 1973 when he sold a chain of drugstores he founded to Eckerd Corp. for $50 million. He gained national prominence in 1990 when he made a highly-public attempt to take over Lockheed Corp. after acquiring almost 20% of its stock. The attempt failed, but Simmons continued to build an empire of industrial and waste management businesses.

In the process, he became a regular on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, clocking in at No. 43 on the most recent list, with an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion.

Simmons, 76, has also become quite the political warrior. He has launched campaigns against the capital gains tax and has been a key funder of conservative media campaigns such as the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans For Truth series that attacked John Kerry's military record, as well as the anti-Obama series running now. Simmons also donated $100,000 to President Bush's 2005 inaugural ball.

. . .

But these days the Dallas-based billionaire isn't only delivering punches, he's taking them - his empire hit hard by the stock market's general decline and by cost and demand issues related to his companies' industrial products.

Simmons' losses . . .over the past year could amount to just over $4 billion. The losses would amount to $2.7 billion so far this year, assuming Simmons' ownership interests haven't changed

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/22/news/newsmakers/boyd_simmons.fortune/?postversion=2008102213

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. Poor little asshole.

[WCGreen]

2. Another "brilliant" business man who just happened to be in the

right place at the right time...

[Dr.Phool]

3. If he loses enough, he won't have to pay capital gains this year.

:party: :toast: :party:

[John Q. Citizen]

4. No capital gains, no capital gains tax.

[WCGreen]

13. He'll be able to carry all those losses over until about 2525...

Zager and Evans will be singing about him...

[DebbieCDC]

5. My heart breaks

NOT!!!!

[MidwestTransplant]

6. Just like Sheldon Adelson from Sands casinos. No money to fund lies.

[elzenmahn]

7. Karma's a bitch, isn't it, Mr. Simmons?

Poor guy. Probably will need to start driving Acuras rather than Bentleys, and eating Filet Mignon rather than caviar.

[MetaTrope]

8. He put most of his money into gold this past year, just like all BFEE plotters

Count on it!

[Joe Bacon]

9. Hey keep him at the Baccarat table!

Let him keep making million dollar bets on his endless number of zero draws!

[sutz12]

10. Poor guy, having to survive on a mere $1 Billion.

:sarcasm:

I know I didn't need that one. :)

[Robbien]

11. If a guy had $3 billion and now he has one, we say, 'You're still a billionaire.' He says,

'I'm down to my last billion.'

[hatrack]

12. Crying here. Just crying and crying.

:evilgrin: