Gawker
Look who just donated $100 million to the New York Public Library: Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant the Blackstone Group. That would be the same Stephen Schwarzman made to look cheap in the Feb. 11 New Yorker, where someone on the library board said of him, "He has given, but not remotely what he could." The magazine questioned the value of Schwarzman's donations to Yale and the Kennedy Center, as well. Worth an estimated $8 billion, Schwarzman has a bit of an image problem after a Wall Street Journal profile revealed that, when at home, he often eats $3,000 in food over the course of a weekend and complains about things like a servant's squeaky shoes. He also took flack for a $3 million birthday party featuring comedian Martin Short and singers Rod Stewart and Patti LaBelle. Schwarzman said he's now donating the $100 million not to fix his nouveau riche image but because "the library helps... immigrants get their shot at the American dream," but really it sounds like the library people stopped waiting for the billionaire to take their hints and just cut a deal with the plutocrat:
Mr. Schwarzman said it was the library that proposed renaming the landmark building. “They said, ‘We’d like you to be the lead gift and give us $100 million and we’d like to rename the main branch after you,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘That sounds pretty good.’ ”
Of course the Times didn't mention the New Yorker article, because what could all this possibly have to do with anything:
A board member is expected to make contributions that roughly correlate to the size of his personal fortune. In Schwarzman’s case, this aspect of the pact has generated considerable controversy and ill will, especially given his overt displays of wealth.
Schwarzman pledged ten million dollars to the Kennedy Center, but the pledge was to be fulfilled over ten years, which gave it a present value significantly lower than ten million. According to a fellow member of the library board, “He has given, but not remotely what he could. A big capital campaign is coming up. We hope that he’ll give very generously.”
One of Schwarzman’s most controversial proposed gifts was to Yale, his alma mater, which, during the late nineties, agreed to name the freshman dining commons after Schwarzman in return for $17 million. Some people at Yale thought the commitment was in hand, but it emerged that Schwarzman’s gift would actually be a contribution to one of Blackstone’s investment partnerships on Yale’s behalf. No money would change hands until the fund was liquidated, and there was a risk that the investment might be worth far less than $17 million (although there was also the possibility that it would be worth more). Yale balked at trading a significant naming opportunity for what it considered a speculative commitment, and Schwarzman did not give the money. (The naming opportunity remains.)
...Schwarzman himself says, “I’m thinking through how I want to approach that area of philanthropy. Assuming that Blackstone does well over time, and the credit markets recover, I’ll have significant resources for charitable activities.”
Times: A $100 Million Donation to the N.Y. Public Library
New Yorker: The Birthday Party / How Stephen Schwarzman became private equity’s designated villain.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Comments
Did they throw in the lions too: Patience and Fortitude?
I feel your pain Steve. It's like when the Staruck's barrista holds my change out to me over the tips jar. I nod, she drops it in with nary a smile. As if we earned our 8 billion by thowing our money around. Bet you got someone to pick up pennies you see on the sidewalk. Be strong bro.
Where the hell does $100 million end up in the NYC library system? Does anyone read books any more?!? I demand a full accounting!
oh come on now. that gift had to have been all but signed on feb 11. gifts like that don't happen rarely in less than a month. if anything the library is lucky the gift didn't fall apart after the board members comment, i've seen it happen. not $100 million dollar gifts, but large ones.
The media is at work.
100 million just doesn't buy what it used to, huh?
He spent $3mil on a party and could only get Martin Short?
@flynnchick: even at Short's standard rate of $5,500/hr, it does seem extravagant.
Also, Ryan, since you began typing this post, Schwarzman's Blackstone stock has dropped to $4 billion.
How to spend three grand on food over a weekend without going out:
Breakfast: 1 cup Cheerios with unicorn milk and a pound of white truffles.
Lunch: send plane to szechuan for the szechuan.
Dinner: Two tins Beluga and an '87 Taittinger followed by a main course of gently roasted Benjamins seasoned with gold dust.
@PandoraSpocks: I once ordered this for room service at the Mayflower.
Throw a blanket over this scumbags head, tie him up, parachute him over Bangladesh with a ripped-up 10 rupee note in his pocket, let him see how most of the world lives...
if toilets were human they would be Schwarzman
I would really prefer if he would have donated that money to NYC schools so that we can have a future generation who could, you know, read and actually appreciate those tomes in the library instead of TyPiNg N sPelInG LeiK Dis.
I guess he couldn't afford teeth whitening??
he's telling the world he's just beginning to think through his personal charitable giving? and further will do so working under the assumption his Blackstone firm recovers its big losses? ugh! he should've had learned to donate philanthropically when he had more, not less (Blackstone) monies to give. for this guy, too little, too late.
Schwarzman is trying to get the Yale Corporation to name a new undergraduate college after him. They won't name a college after anyone living, but Schwarzman wants to name it after his father, who was also named Stephen. He was planning on donating $100m to Yale, but I wonder if the deal fell through and he donated the money to the library instead.
@KiKiRiKi: Freal? That'd be the worst college name since Ezra Stiles.
That the Blackstone Group is edging towards bankruptcy appears to be the real reason that this billionaire douche is actually giving all this money away.
I guess Stevie is trying to buy himself some good PR before the bust!
He was worth $8 billion when BX's share price was at 36 or so. Not so much anymore.
Steve's best (or worst, depending on your point of view) investment decision was to sell a portion of Blackstone's future profits at the top of the market last summer in an IPO. Perfect timing. It shows that he knew the market was turning, that the credit crunch/subprime mess would wreck his LBO business, and that there would never be a better time to sell a piece of the company. Stock drops by half after the IPO? That just means that the sellers were geniuses and the buyers were chumps.
@smitty: To paraphrase Jack from 30 Rock, when you're that rich, you can pay people to look at your teeth.
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