Billionaire Sergey Brin revealed as buyer of $35M Malibu estate

The mystery buyer who paid $35 million for a modest home once owned by Pat Benatar near Point Dume in Malibu was revealed to be billionaire Sergey Brin.

The Google co-founder bought the 6,100-square-foot house last year at 29060 Cliffside Drive, on a cliff overlooking Big Dume Beach, Dirt.com reported.

The seller was Nebraska-based businessman Steve Buchanan, who bought the Mid-century Modern home in 2017 from “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence for $21 million. Lawrence, who renovated and expanded the home, bought it from rock singer Benatar in 2003 for $4.5 million.

Brin, with a net worth of nearly $100 billion, in April of last year paid $500,000 over its asking price.

The two-story home, built in 1958, is set atop the cliff with sweeping views of passing whales along the Pacific Ocean.

The white house with shallow black gables has polished beam ceilings and floor-to-ceiling beachfront walls of glass.

Highlights include an automatic gate, media room, gourmet kitchen, a glassed-in breakfast nook and two master suites.

Toward the beach, a sundeck, fire-pit lounge and BBQ overlook the ocean, with an infinity pool that seems to merge with the ocean.

The house, on nearly an acre, has a terraced backyard with a wooden staircase that zig-zags down the cliff to the shore.

Buchanan, who founded a chain of midwestern convenience stores he sold for $580 million two years ago, is based in Omaha’s tony Linden Estates. Last year, he bought a furnished, beachfront mansion north of Boca Raton, Florida, for $45 million.

Brin last year split from his second wife, Nicole Shanahan, after she reportedly had an affair with Elon Musk. In 2020, the couple bought another Malibu home near Point Dume from Pink for $13.5 million, now boarded up, according to Dirt.

The Russian-born Brin still owns a penthouse in New York’s West Village, and at least two homes in the Silicon Valley town of Los Altos Hills./

— Dana Bartholomew

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