Malibu mansion’s $100M sale continues LA’s hot summer of luxury real estate deals

NBC Universal’s vice chairman sold his 14K sf mansion, reportedly to the messaging service's co-founder

Jan Koum, Ron Meyer and the Malibu house (Credit: Getty Images, Westside Estate Agency, iStock)
Jan Koum, Ron Meyer and the Malibu house (Credit: Getty Images, Westside Estate Agency, iStock)

It has been a busy summer for massive Los Angeles mansion sales. In July, the Spelling Manor in Beverly Hills sold for a record-breaking $125 million.

And now, NBC Universal executive Ron Meyer unloaded his oceanfront Malibu compound for $100 million, according to Dirt. The buyer is believed to be Jan Koum, co-founder of the messaging service Whatsapp, according to the report. The deal has not closed yet.

Meyer, who is the company’s vice chairman, had been shopping the home privately for about a year, but officially listed the 14,000-square-foot estate for $125 million in January.

That price would have matched the record-breaking Spelling Manor, whose sale made it the most expensive home to have sold in Los Angeles County.

Meyer’s estate features a main home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, private access to a secluded beach, a large pool and a tennis court. There’s also a spa, and two guest houses.

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The property, designed by architect Charles Gwathmey, was the subject of a dispute between Meyer and his former business partner, Disney Michael Ovitz, co-founder of Creative Artists Agency and a past president of Walt Disney Company. Meyer ultimately kept the property — which he purchased from Ovitz for about $5 million — and built the mansion in the late 1990s.

Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency represented both sides of the most recent deal.

Koum and his co-founder, Brian Acton, became billionaires overnight when they sold Whatsapp to Facebook for $19.3 billion in 2014. Kaum has an estimated net worth of north of $10 billion, according to Forbes.

Meyer’s $100 million sale ranks among the biggest deals in the state. Last year, Peter Morton broke a record sold his Carbon Beach estate for $110 million — then a record — to natural gas billionaire Michael Smith.

But the luxury L.A. market has slowed in recent months. Still, the priciest listing remains the massive Chartwell Estate in Bel Air. It the late media mogul Jerry Perenchio’s crown jewel, and has been on the market for $195 million. [Dirt] — Natalie Hoberman