Jim Clark Net Worth

What is Jim Clark's net worth?

Jim Clark is a Texas-born billionaire businessman who has a net worth of $4.5 billion. Jim Clark is the founder of several notable tech companies including, Silicon Graphics Inc., Netscape Communications Corporation, Healtheon (which later merged with WebMD) and wealth management firm myCFO.

James H. Clark was born on March 23, 1944, in Plainview, Texas. Having endured a difficult childhood, young Clark dropped out of high school and spent four years in the Navy. But even though he didn't have a high school diploma, Clark managed to earn enough credits to enroll at the University of New Orleans. There, he completed his masters and bachelors degree in Physics and then he finished his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah.

Silicon Graphics

In 1981, Clark along with several other Stanford graduates started Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI). The company soon grew to become the world leader in production of Hollywood movie visual effects and 3-D imaging.

Netscape

Despite SGI's success, he left the company in 1994. Around the same time Jim and Marc Andreessen established web browser company Netscape, with a $4.1 mllion investment from Jim. Netscape would go on to become instrumental in the launch of the Internet IPO boom on Wall Street during the mid to late 1990s. Among other things, Netscape developed the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol (SSL) for securing online communication, as well as JavaScript, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages.

On August 9, 1995, Netscape had what would prove to be an earth-shattering Initial Public Offering. The stock was initially priced at $14 a share. By the end of the day it was trading at $75 and had a market cap of $3 billion. A month later, the stock was trading at $115. At that level, the company was worth $4 billion and the $4.1 million investment Jim Clark made just 19 months earlier, was worth $1 billion. At that point, the 24-year-old Marc Andreessen's 2.6 million shares were worth $287 million. Jim Barksdale, the CEO, owned 3.8 million shares which were worth $420 million. It has been estimated that over 100 Netscape employees, including the front desk secretary, became millionaires from the IPO.

Over the next few years, Netscape would face fierce and arguably illegal competition from Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser. During a period that is now called "the browser wars," Microsoft soon began shipping its Windows operating system products with IE not only included by default, but pre-selected as the web browser, by default. Microsoft would soon be sued by the United States Department of Justice, which accused the company of abusing its monopoly powers in the personal computer operating system market. Microsoft was found GUILTY and was at one point ordered to be broken up into two companies. On appeal the judgment was mostly overturned and instead Microsoft agreed to increased oversight and limitations on various business practices.

In 1999, Netscape was purchased by AOL for $4.3 billion, though the overall value was $10 billion with other considerations and milestones.

WebMD

However, Clark would move on once again, this time with the sale of the company to America Online in 1999 and the start of another venture called Healtheon, which today operates under the name WebMD. In 2017 WebMD was acquired by Internet Brands for $2.8 billion.

All in all, Jim Clark became billionaire thanks to his timely investment strategy that favors a big stake in Apple as well as early bets on leading social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Personal Life

Jim Clark is mostly retired today. He lives with his fourth wife Kristy Hinze, an Australian model. He is 36 years her senior. They married in 2009 and today have two daughters. He has two children from previous marriages. In 2000, his daughter Kathy married Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube. They divorced in 2014.

Jim reportedly paid his third wife, Forbes reporter Nancy Rutter, a $125 million divorce settlement.

Real Estate

In March of 2021, Jim and Kristy paid $94.2 million for a 16-acre estate near Palm Beach, Florida. The estate, which is called "Gemini," features multiple living structures, including a 60,000 square-foot primary mansion. After just 15 months of ownership, in June 2022 Jim and Kristy sold Gemini to an undisclosed buyer for $175 million. That represents and $80 million profit for 460 days of ownership. That works out to $174 in profit for every day of ownership. For that reason, many have called this the "greatest house flip of all time."

Jim and Kristy own a penthouse in Manhattan and a country estate in the upstate NY town of Bedford.