Austin Russell, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Luminar, a company that specializes in developing advanced lidar and machine perception technologies for self-driving cars. Recently, he made headlines after announcing his acquisition of an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings for a reported value of almost $800 million. In addition to his impressive business acumen, Russell has also been recognized for his technological contributions, having been named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2017 and 2018.
Austin Russell, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar, has purchased an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings for almost $800 million. The deal, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, includes the remaining portion of the company that was owned by the Forbes family. The family had sold 95% of the company to the Hong Kong-based investor group, Integrated Whale Media, in 2014. Forbes had been searching for a buyer since calling off its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in June 2020, after the market soured and investors lost interest in SPACs.
Luminar Technologies, the vision-based lidar and machine perception technology company, went public via a SPAC merger in 2021, just when retail investors were still keen on investing in mobility tech firms. In contrast, Forbes had called off its own SPAC plans in June of last year, after the market soured and investors lost their appetite for such deals. Though Forbes' owners had sold 95% of the company to Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media in 2014, Luminar's CEO, Austin Russell, announced on Monday that he was buying an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings for nearly $800 million. The remaining portion was owned by the Forbes family. Despite Luminar's IPO success, its market capitalization, which was at $3.4 billion during its IPO, has now decreased to around $2 billion. The company also recently reported losses that were slightly wider than expected.
In the wake of Luminar's 2021 SPAC merger, some retail investors may not be satisfied with the company's performance. However, Luminar CEO Austin Russell has stated that he has no regrets about the SPAC deal, as the alternative could have meant running out of funds as private market investors pulled back. In an interview with the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Russell defended the SPAC deal as a necessary move in a competitive and fast-paced industry.
Others might find it concerning that Russell -- described by Forbes itself in 2021 as the world's youngest self-made billionaire -- will soon be directing some of his attention elsewhere.
Shareholders -- and Luminar employees -- may also find the acquisition confusing.
While it has become fashionable to dabble with more than one company at once (Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey), as well as to be a billionaire owner of a media company (Jeff Bezos, Laurene Powell Jobs, Marc Benioff), buying Forbes when so many outlets are fighting for survival bucks conventional wisdom.
Then again, Russell has been focused on Luminar since 2012, when he dropped out of Stanford to start the company, aided by a $100,000 grant from renowned investor Peter Thiel. (The Thiel Fellowship program, founded in 2011, continues to give $100,000 to select students who are eager to spend two years on their idea instead of "sitting in a classroom.")
Russell has enjoyed the fruits of his work in the ensuing years. He purchased an $83 million Los Angeles spread in 2021 that has since been featured in the hit show "Succession." He also reportedly paid another $10.6 million for a 13,000-square-foot mansion in Winter Park, Florida, near Luminar’s Orlando headquarters. But after spending his entire career focused on Luminar, he could well be looking to alter how he invests his time.
As Y Combinator Paul Graham once said as he expressed his distaste for funding founders who are especially young, sometimes the worse thing that can happen to a person is that his or her startup succeeds straightaway.
Said Graham: "[I]f you start a successful startup, like, the footloose and fancy-free days of your life are over. You’re working for that company.”
In a statement to the WSJ, Russell said simply of his motivations that: “Forbes is something I had always looked up to as a brand and as a media empire." He also told the outlet that he doesn’t plan to get involved in Forbes’s day-to-day operations but that he wants to both grow the outfit and emphasize "philanthropy" within the business.
TechCrunch reached out to Russell a bit ago; we were referred to a press release about the acquisition and told Russell has no further comment for now.
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