The company that manages Bill Gates’ wealth has joined Blackstone Group to launch a $4.3 billion bid to buy Signature Aviation, the world’s largest FBO chain. The Gates company, Cascade Investment, already has a 19 percent stake in Signature, which has dozens of FBOs around the world and does about $2.5 billion in business every year. The irony of Gates spending that kind of money on an industry that struggles with public perception of its carbon footprint was not lost on commenters who posted on the social media sites of media outlets reporting the news.
“Who will rid the world of billionaires with a self-awareness bypass?” quipped a Twitter commenter posting as Andrew Simms, of the U.K. “Bill Gates is about to publish a book on the #ClimateEmergency AND buy the biggest operator of private jets in the world ….” Gates, an outspoken and frequent commenter on climate change, will publish the highly anticipated book next month. It’s reportedly his blueprint on the steps and technology needed to keep the planet from being catastrophically affected by climate change.
Gives new meaning to the phrase, “how do you make a million dollars in aviation, start with a billion”!
Yeah, you’d think Gates and friends learned from Eclipse. Friction-stir welding FTW! 🙂
Even Warren Buffett said it was against his investment principles to buy NetJets, but he did anyway.
BTW: Does anybody own an Eclipse? How’s the maintenance on that? I heard it was “a bunch of parts flying in loose formation”, but apparently DayJet actually bought several and operated them for a while as an air taxi operation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DayJet
The one page form you fill out for that $100 ramp fee will become a 19 page html document viewed on a surface tablet which you agree to having read by checking a box.