Philip Frederick Anschutz (/ˈænʃuːts/ AN-shoots; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls companies in a variety of industries, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, travel, movies, theaters, arenas and music.
He also owns stakes in performance venues, including Crypto.com Arena, The O2, London, and the Dignity Health Sports Park.
Through AEG Live, he owns the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Sea Island Resorts and The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado.
[2][3][4][5] His father was an oil tycoon and land speculator who invested in ranches in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and eventually went into the oil-drilling business.
His grandfather, Carl Anschutz,[6] was an ethnic German who emigrated from Russia and started the Farmers State Bank in Russell.
Anschutz graduated from Wichita High School East in 1957, and in 1961 earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Kansas, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
In 1999, Fortune magazine compared him to the 19th-century tycoon J.P. Morgan, as both men "struck it rich in a fundamentally different way: they operated across an astounding array of industries, mastering and reshaping entire economic landscapes."
Anschutz denied any wrongdoing but volunteered to donate a total of $4.4 million to settle the case as long as he selected the recipient organizations in advance.
[15] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice extensively investigated Qwest officials and determined there was no justification for taking action against any board member.
The Denver Post summarized the implications for Anschutz: "Not only is Qwest founder and board member Philip Anschutz not a defendant in the long-awaited civil case against the regime of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio, he doesn't even merit a mention in the 50-page complaint.
[17] On June 24, 2008, it was announced that Anschutz would buy Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which had purchased the Grand Canyon Railway in 2007.
[24] In 2006 SportsBusiness Journal ranked Anschutz the most influential person in soccer in the U.S.[25] Anschutz was one of the founders of Major League Soccer and owned several teams for periods of time, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United, and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.
For example, he pushed for the building of soccer-specific stadiums, allowing MLS teams to increase revenue and better control costs.
[24] He has since sold his stake in the Chicago, Denver, Houston, New York, San Jose and D.C. MLS teams and now owns only the Galaxy.
Anschutz has had several other business ventures, including Forest Oil, Pacific Energy Group, Union Pacific Railroad (he is the company's largest shareholder, with a 6% stake), and the Regal Entertainment Group, the second largest movie theater chain in the world, with approximately 7,000 screens.
Anschutz has invested in, for example, the Clarity Media Group, a Denver-based publishing group that includes[29] newspapers such as The Oklahoman, the largest newspaper in Oklahoma; The San Francisco Examiner (purchased in 2004, sold in November 2011); The Washington Examiner, a conservative weekly tabloid that was consolidated from a group of D.C.-area suburban dailies; The Baltimore Examiner, which launched in April 2006 and was shut down in early 2009; the now-closed Examiner.com, a hyper-local web portal where contributors wrote on local topics from news to blog-like stories; the conservative Weekly Standard (purchased in 2009);[30] and The Gazette, Colorado's second-largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of 74,172 (purchased on November 30, 2012)[31] (Anschutz has trademarked the name "Examiner" in more than 60 cities.)
On December 14, 2018, Anschultz executed the closure of The Weekly Standard after Editor in Chief, Stephen Hayes, was unsuccessful in an attempt to find a buyer.
[32] It was announced on September 15, 2011, that Anschutz would acquire all assets of the Oklahoma Publishing Company (OPUBCO) from the Gaylord and Dickinson families.
[36][37] According to the Bureau of Land Management, which on July 2, 2012, announced the completion of the project's final Environmental Impact Statement, "Chokecherry and Sierra Madre are two distinct sites approximately five miles apart which are both being analyzed together.
[40] He also financed and distributed films with Christian themes for mass audiences (through his two film production companies and ownership of much of the Regal, Edwards and United Artists theater chains) including Amazing Grace and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In 2009, Anschutz purchased the conservative American opinion magazine The Weekly Standard from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
[48] In 2006, a lawyer for Anschutz wrote a letter to President George W. Bush's White House Counsel Harriet Miers recommending Neil Gorsuch to the newly vacant seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit after The Denver Post reported that Gorsuch was not actively being considered for the vacancy.
[53] Anschutz and his wife have contributed over $100 million to the new medical, dental, physical therapy, physician assistant, nursing, and pharmacy campus of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado, now named the Anschutz Medical Campus in their honor.