Jeff Bezos buys David Geffen's LA mansion for record $165 million

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, reportedly set a new record for the highest home price in the Los Angeles area after purchasing the Warner Estate in Beverly Hills from media mogul David Geffen for $165 million.

The purchase, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, is only .125% of Bezos's $131 billion net worth - the equivalent of the average American family buying a home for $122.

The previous residential record in the L.A. area was set late last year, when media executive Lachlan Murdoch paid roughly $150 million for Chartwell, a Bel-Air estate used as the Clampett residence in the television show "The Beverly Hillbillies.''

The 9.4-acre estate was designed in the 1930s for Jack Warner, the late former president of entertainment giant Warner Bros. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, stars like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Paul Newman attended parties at the estate.

The 13,600-square foot mansion includes eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The property features expansive terraces, sprawling gardens, several guest houses, a tennis court and its own 9-hole golf course, according to the Journal.

"No studio czar's residence, before or since, has ever surpassed in size, grandeur, or sheer glamour the Jack Warner Estate on Angelo Drive in Benedict Canyon,'' veteran Los Angeles real-estate agent Jeff Hyland wrote in his book, "The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills.''

Geffen purchased the property for $47.5 million in 1990, a then-record for an L.A. area home.

Bezos Expeditions also bought a $90 million plot of undeveloped L.A. land "as an investment," according to the Journal. The seller was reportedly the estate of Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who died in 2018.

Earlier this year, Bezos purchased three apartments in New York in a deal estimated at about $80 million. If converted into a single residence, the 212 Fifth Avenue units would total over 17,000 square feet. Bezos also owns 420,000 acres of land in Texas.