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Thanks to the massive haul from her Renaissance world tour, Beyoncé is on the cusp of becoming a billionaire. According to a new estimate from Forbes magazine (paywalled), the singer’s net worth has ballooned by nearly $300 million this year to $800 million. Back in June, Queen Bey, 42, came in at No. 48 on […]
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Source: Tasos Katopodis / Getty / Magic Johnson
The Billionaires Boys Club for Black notable athletes just got its fourth member, and it’s none other than Magic Johnson.
According to the financial bible, Forbes, Magic Johnson is now a billionaire. The NBA champion and Pro Basketball Hall-of-Famer reached the wealth milestone thanks to a combination of all of his lucrative investments in “professional sports teams, movie theaters, Starbucks cafes, and a health insurance provider,” according to the website.
Johnson becoming a billionaire makes him only the fourth professional athlete to do so, joining his buddy Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Tiger Woods.
Forbes reports Johnson’s minority stake in the Washington Commanders after billionaire Josh Harris’ $6.05 billion purchase of the team in May, stakes in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and the MLS’ LAFC, plus other major investments pushed his net worth to $1.2 billion.
While Johnson’s investments in sports franchises, Starbucks, and Loews get all of the attention, Forbes points to his investment in Iowa-based life insurance company EquiTrust as the one that makes up the most significant portion of his net worth.
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Forbes now estimates his net worth to be $1.2 billion—the result of his stakes in those teams, and major investments in a slate of industries, including a 60% stake in Iowa-based life insurance company EquiTrust he purchased in 2015.
EquiTrust makes up the largest portion of Johnson’s personal net worth—since the purchase, the Iowa-based company’s assets have skyrocketed from $16 billion to $26 billion, with annual revenues of roughly $2.6 billion.
Magic Johnson Could Have Been A “Trillionaire” Already
While Johnson has nothing to be upset about regarding his net worth, he could have already been a trillionaire if he had made one investment back in his playing days, and that’s taking Nike’s offer of stock options instead of the cash with Converse.
According to the numbers, Johnson missed out on $5.2 billion.
Still, being worth $1.2 billion is nothing to sneeze at. Congrats to the Magic man on the accomplishment.
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Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
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The culture just got more evidence that Jay-Z is breathing rare air. He is the only rapper slotted into Forbes’ 2023 World’s Billionaires list.
As spotted on Hip Hop N More the Brooklyn, New York native continues to put up numbers that his peers dream of. This week the American business magazine released their annual collection of entrepreneurs who have entered the three comma club. In total the staff estimates that there are only 2,640 billionaires throughout the world and the “Holy Grail” MC was slotted at 1,217 with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion dollars which is about $1.4 billion dollars up from last year. The publication affirms that much of Hov’s wealth is attributed to his success in the wine and spirits industry; namely Armand de Brignac. Back in 2021 luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton purchased a 50% stake in the champagne brand with hopes of extending its global reach.
Speaking of LVMH, owner Bernard Arnault is ranked at number one with an estimated earnings of $211 billion. Other titans of industry round the top ten list including Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates. From a popular culture lens we also get some usual suspects holding a spot for themselves including Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James, Rihanna, and Kim Kardashian. Kanye West did not rank in 2023 due to losing several lucrative partnerships because of his behavior last year. The World’s Billionaires is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually. The list was first published in March 1987
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Megan Thee Stallion became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 issue Monday (Nov. 28) and opened up about the pressure of her sophomore studio set Traumazine in the accompanying interview.
“This album was really personal to me,” she told the magazine. “This is, like, the first time I ever, you know, talked about things that I’m feeling or talked about things that I’m going through. So it kind of made me nervous to write a lot of these songs. It makes me nervous to perform some of these songs. And I was kinda just like, ‘OK, I’mma write this stuff and I’mma just put it out. Hmm, Hotties, what you got to say about this?’
“My emotions sometimes make me a little nervous,” the rapper continued. “Like, to be vulnerable can make me a little nervous sometimes so…I just feel like I’m still processing how the album feels to other people.”
Released back in August, the LP contains the hit singles “Sweetest Pie” with Dua Lipa, “Plan B,” “Pressurelicious,” “Her” and “Ungrateful,” and bowed at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
However, these days, Megan has more in her sights than just conquering the music industry. “I want to be bigger than just my music. I want people to know Megan as everything that she ever wanted to be: Megan the artist,” she said, later adding, “My mind is in a place where I feel like I can do whatever I want to do because nobody ever told me I couldn’t.
“So getting into writing, getting into directing, getting into acting,” Megan concluded, “I feel like, yeah, now y’all see I’m not one-dimensional. I’m everything that I say I am.”
Read Megan’s Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 story here, and get a glimpse of her fierce cover look below.
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