The homes of Zuckerberg and other tech titans

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo left the harsh winters of Chicago to hole up in this cozy $3.2 million home in Corte Madera, Calif., just north of San Francisco in 2009.

By Ellen Lee, special to CNBC.com

The new tech titans are building the tools that influence our daily lives, giving us games like Words With Friends, and the capability to stream our favorite TV shows wherever we are, on whatever gadgets we choose.

But where do they rest their bleary eyes after their late-night hackathons? Some prefer a modest place to call home, belying their rock-star-nerd status. But others have splurged, showing it really pays to be a geek after all.

Location: Palo Alto, Calif. Cost: $7 million Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5 full, 2 half Square footage: 5,617

Mark Zuckerberg’s new digs are a long way from the Harvard dorm where he and his classmates founded the popular social networking site Facebook.

The baby-faced CEO plunked down $7 million for the Palo Alto pad last year, which includes a salt water pool and spa. Still, to some, it’s considered modest, given that Facebook may be going public this year in what some state could make the social networking website worth more than $100 billion.

Built in 1903, Zuckerberg’s home still holds its turn-of-the-century charm, but with modern luxuries. Zuckerberg can entertain friends with its outdoor fireplace and built-in barbecue. The master bathroom has an old-fashioned marble soaking tub and heated floors. There’s also a sun room that opens up to the yard.

The ideal part for the well-known workaholic? It’s just a stone’s throw away from Facebook’s new Menlo Park headquarters.

CNBC slideshow: Rags-to-riches CEOs

Location: San Francisco Cost: $8.9 million Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 7 Square footage: N/A

You may build your fantasy real estate empire in CityVille, the popular Facebook game, but Mark Pincus has one in real life.

Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, maker of CityVille, FarmVille, Words With Friends and other popular on-line games, is selling not one, but two San Francisco mansions.

He and wife Alison Pincus, co-founder of One Kings Lane, a flash sales site for luxury home goods, have put their Presidio Heights home on the market for $8.9 million and a Cole Valley property for $1.97 million. Both are meticulously decorated.

The stately $8.9 million Presidio Heights mansion includes a penthouse level with a terrace, office and master bedroom and bathroom, plus a media room and an au pair unit. The Cole Valley home boasts panoramic views of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sean Parker, Spotify and Founder’s Fund

Location: New York Cost: $20 million Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 7 full, 1 half Square footage: 7,500

Sean Parker disputes his bad boy portrayal by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 film “The Social Network.” But the former Facebook president and Napster co-founder is certainly living it up in his new home, a $20 million West Village townhouse known as the Bacchus House. Formerly owned by Italian liquor heir Enrico Cinzano, it includes an indoor pool and gym, garage, theater, a chef’s kitchen and an elevator.

Parker, now a managing director at the Founders Fund, a San Francisco venture capital firm, and a director of Spotify, an on-line music service, bought it last year, after renting it for some time and throwing his share of over-the-top parties.

CNBC slideshow: Homes of 90s stars

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook, and David Goldberg, Survey Monkey

Location: Atherton, Calif. Cost: $8.6 million (assessed value from ) Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 8.5 Square footage: 7,890

Last fall, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, welcomed President Barack Obama to her home in Atherton.

Sandberg and husband David Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, held the $38,500-per person fundraiser in their five-bedroom, 8.5-bath home.

Obama is not the only VIP to come through their doors. Sandberg has also hosted exclusive soirees with guests such as Geena Davis, Billie Jean King and Rupert Murdoch at her Silicon Valley home. It’s also here where the couple raise their two kids and where Sandberg first got to know Mark Zuckerberg before she left Google to help run his rapidly growing social networking site.

Location: Palo Alto Cost: $5 million (assessed value; it appears she bought it for $1.8 million) Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 6.5 Square footage: 5,200

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg is not the only one who has hosted the president in her Silicon Valley home. In late 2010, Marissa Mayer, vice president at Google, and husband Zachary Bogue, co-founder of Founders Den, a shared office space and private club for tech entrepreneurs in San Francisco, also threw a $30,000-per-plate fundraiser for President Obama in their Palo Alto home.

That night, Mayer even tweeted about the event: “The President came to our house for dinner tonight. It was absolutely surreal!”

Mayer’s home is just a few blocks from the garage where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP, as Mayer pointed out during the fundraiser

Check out more homes of tech’s young titans at CNBC.com.

More source:

Bottom Line - The homes of Zuckerberg and tech's other new titans
The Homes of Mark Zuckerberg and Other Tech Titans | Texas Real ...
The homes of Zuckerberg and other tech titans
Bottom Line – The homes of Zuckerberg and tech's other new titans ...

Random News

Details :
Submited at Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 2:00 pm on News by madison
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback

Leave Comment Here...