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Anschutz

This profile considers Philip Anschutz and the Clarity group.

It covers -

  • introduction
  • Clarity
  • Anschutz
  • holdings
  • studies
  • chronology

Introduction

US billionaire Philip Anschutz (oil, railways, telecommunications) has expanded into cinema and sports centre operation and into free daily newspapers (through the Clarity group).

Clarity and Anschutz Entertainment

Clarity centres on the Examiner newspapers in San Francisco (once the flagship of WR Hearst), Washington and Baltimore.

Anschutz Entertainment Group includes major venues in the US and UK and sports teams.

Anschutz

Philip F. Anschutz (1939- ) is the son of Fred Anschutz, founder of Kansas-based oil and gas company Circle A Drilling. He graduated from Kansas University in 1961 with a degree in finance and assumed control of Circle A, at that time in difficulty, making major discoveries in north Utah during the late-1970s.

Anschutz sold most of his oil interests to Mobil in 1982 for around US$500 million, acquiring control of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1984 and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1988. During the 1990s, as the dotcom and telecommunications bubbles gathered pace, he expanded into long-distance and local telecommunications (initially through rolling out fibre along the railroads' right of way).

Anschutz's rail operations were less than stellar - the New York Times characterised his 1996 merger of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads as "the most spectacular merger fiasco of modern times" - but he was able to build large-scale telecommunication networks and then acquire regional operators, notably US West (the core of what is now Qwest).

Qwest Communications went public in 1997, with Anschutz as the principal stockholder (with 17% as of 2004) reportedly having a paper worth of US$4.9 billion (on an initial US$55 million investment) before the bubble collapsed. He faced criticism for trading in Qwest stock, claimed as inconsistent with Christian values evident in funding of anti-Gay campaigns in the US and religious-themed film production. In 2002 Fortune tartly characterised him as the nation's "greediest executive".

Apart from a major stake in Qwest the Denver-based Anschutz Corporation includes ownership of the Los Angeles Kings (professional hockey) and five European hockey clubs, four Major League Soccer teams and interests in the Los Angeles Lakers (basketball). Property holdings include the London Millennium Dome, Los Angeles' Staples Center and major rural holdings.

Anschutz also controls United Artists and Regal Cinemas, Inc, with over 6,061 screens (roughly 20% of the cinemas in the US), along with minor film/video production interests, centred on Walden Media. National CineMedia, a joint venture with AMC and Cinemark, sells in-cinema ads and operates a network for distribution of digital content to cinemas.

Anschutz acquired a controlling equity interest in Regal (and some 79% of voting rights) through the bankruptcy reorganisation of United Artists cinema chain (2001), the Edwards chain (2001) and Regal Cinemas, Inc (2002). He merged those entities, with Regal subsequently acquiring cinemas from Hoyts (later controlled by Packer). In a 2004 speech he commented that he entered the film production business because he wanted to stop "cursing the darkness".

Holdings

Anschutz' holdings as of late 2005 included -

  • Qwest (17%)
  • Union Pacific Railroad (6%.)
  • Regal Cinemas (51%) - Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, United Artists Theatre Company, and Hoyts Cinema brands
  • Walden Media (inc Crusader film production company)
  • National CineMedia joint venture
  • Overland Trail Cattle Ranch (312,170 acres) and other ranching interests
  • Los Angeles Lakers (30%)
  • Staples Center (60%)
  • Millennium Dome (London)
  • Los Angeles Kings (90%)
  • five major league soccer teams in US (inc San Jose Earthquakes)
  • pro hockey franchises in Europe (eg London Knights) and two minor league teams in US
  • Concerts West and Goldenvoice

Studies

There are no major biographies of Anschutz or studies of Clarity. He features in accounts of Qwest and the US telecommunications bubble, such as Martin Fransman's lucid Telecoms in the Internet Age: From Boom To Bust To? (Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 2002), Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist (New York: Wiley 2003) by Om Malik and Telebomb: The Truth Behind the $500-Billion Telecom Bust and What the Industry Must Do to Recover (New York: Amacom 2005) by John Handley.

Chronology

1982 Anschutz sells most oil interests to Mobil for around US$500m

1984 acquires control of Rio Grande Industries (Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad)

1988 Rio Grande acquires control of Southern Pacific Railroad

1996 merges Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads

1997 takes Qwest Communications public

2000 Qwest acquires US West in US$36.5bn merger

2001 MIG (Kluge-controlled Metromedia International Group) sells MetroStars soccer team to Philip Anschutz

2001 Anschutz-backed Meridian Delta acquires London Millennium Dome

2002 Qwest sells its print directories operations for US$7bn

2002 collapse of Qwest Digital Media (joint venture with Qwest)

2003 Regal buys 52 theaters from Hoyts Cinemas for US$213m

2004 Clarity buys San Francisco Examiner for est. US$20m

2004 buys Journal Newspapers Inc (Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal, and Northern Virginia Journal)

2005 Regal and AMC form joint venture National CineMedia

2005 launches Washington Examiner

2005 Southern California companies pay US$300m to Anschutz Pinedale Corp. for 38 oil and gas wells

2006 launches Baltimore Examiner