David I Saperstein
Encyclopedia
David I. Saperstein is an American entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 and farmer. The father of five children, he currently lives in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

.

Biography

Saperstein was born to Jewish parents in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

. He dropped out of college to sell used cars. When he got stuck in a snowstorm he came up with the idea to sell traffic reports on the radio. He used his Ford Dealership to start his new venture in Baltimore. When Ford withdrew its support of Saperstein and he lost his dealership, he founded Metro Networks
Metro Networks
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/files/2011/04/Metro_Logo_bigger.jpgMetro Networks is a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011...

 in 1978. Metro Networks grew to serve over 1,500 radio stations in the U.S. In 1996, Saperstein decided to take Metro Networks public under the Nasdaq
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 exchange, stock symbol MTNT. He made his fortune when he sold the company to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...

 in 1999 for $1.25 billion in stock. Now he operates tree farms in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

: "It's a growing business," he once told a reporter for Forbes Magazine.

Fleur de Lys mansion

During the 1990s, Saperstein built a massive, 12-bedroom, 15-bathroom Versailles-style
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

 estate for his then-wife, Suzanne, sprawled across several acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s on Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Bel Air. The home is listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the most expensive in the United States, with an estimated property value of about $125 million. The compound, which according to W Magazine is inspired by France's 17th-century Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...

, occupies about 45000 square feet (4,180.6 m²) and is called Fleur de Lys ("Lily Flower" in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

). The home took five years to build and the couple were divorced 18 months after it was completed. His wife Suzanne has had the house on the market at a listing price of $125 million. She listed the home shortly after divorcing her husband.

David Saperstein also built a sprawling horse ranch in Simi Valley
Simi Valley
Simi Valley is a synclinal valley in Southern California in the United States. It is an enclosed or hidden valley surrounded by mountains and hills. It is connected to the San Fernando Valley to the east by the Santa Susana Pass & 118 freeway, and in the west the narrows of the Arroyo Simi and 118...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, called Hummingbird Nest Ranch, which was featured in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

in 2004.

Wives and cousins

  • In 2006 Saperstein divorced his wife of 23 years, Swedish
    Sweden
    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

     philanthropist Suzanne Saperstein. He had the divorce papers served to her in Texas on a stopover on her way from California to Europe.
  • Saperstein later married another Swedish woman, Hillevi Svensson, formerly nanny
    Nanny
    A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...

     to his children.
  • Ken Mehlman
    Ken Mehlman
    Kenneth Brian Mehlman is an American businessman, attorney, and political figure who served as the campaign manager for the 2004 re-election campaign of George W. Bush and Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, President Bush appointed Mehlman to the U.S...

     (cousin) was the former national Republican chair and president George W. Bush's strategist for both of his terms.

Entrepreneurialism

Saperstein began his career selling used cars in Baltimore, but quickly found there was a niche for radio programming to include traffic reports. While traffic reporting
Traffic reporting
Traffic reporting is the distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic accidents, generally as part of a radio or television broadcast program. The reports help commuters anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Many reports mention alternate...

 was already a part of radio programming in some cities, Saperstein found there was no single company providing concise reports for stations, either regionally or nationally.

In 1978 he founded Metro Networks, in Houston, Texas. The company grew, through the 1980s, into a veritable traffic reporting empire, and in 1996, Saperstein took the company public on the Nasdaq exchange.

In 1992, Saperstein's daughter married Shane Coppola in Baltimore, Maryland in a wedding that was described as "the social event of the season in the nation's capital." The wedding is referenced in the 1993 film Dave, starring Kevin Kline.

In 1998, Saperstein, with his son-in-law, Coppola, began negotiating a merger agreement with Westwood One, and in September 1999 three companies merged, Metro Networks, Copter Acquisition Corp. and Westwood One.

Only 9 days before the merger between Metro Networks
Metro Networks
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/files/2011/04/Metro_Logo_bigger.jpgMetro Networks is a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011...

 and Westwood One, Saperstein started a new company called Five "S" Capital, Inc. Five "S" is an investment company that helps to fund new business development. Saperstein brought many of his former Metro Networks executives on board Five "S" Capital, including Metro Networks’ former general counsel, Gary Worobow. Worobow remains general counsel for Five "S" Capital, and also serves as general counsel and a director for Global Traffic Network, which was founded by Westwood One in 2005.

Philanthropic work

Saperstein sits on the boards of Cedars-Sinai Hospital and Music Center of Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee.

In 2006, the Saperstein Critical Care tower that bears his name was opened at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Initially named the David and Suzanne Saperstein Tower, it had to be renamed after his rancorous divorce.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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