Al Gore 'Romney Rich': Former Presidential Candidate Amassed Fortune Following Defeat
Former Vice President and Presidential hopeful Al Gore is being described as "Romney rich" after a recent report stated he amassed a fortune in the years since being defeated by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election.
The term "Romney rich" is in reference to another presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, who lost to President Obama in the 2012 election.
The report in Bloomberg's Business Week revealed that in 1999 Gore only had $1.7 million in assets, but in 2013, Gore's new estimated wealth was said to be north of $200 million.
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The report details that Gore is thought to have earned the majority of his fortune recently after he sold Current TV to Qatari-based Al Jazeera television for $500 million. The deal netted him $70 million, according to reports.
Gore also recently exercised about 59,000 shares of Apple Inc. stock, where he has served on the board since 2004. The sold stock was worth an estimated $30 million, based on the company's share price the day the options were claimed.
Gore also derives his wealth from shares in Occidental Petroleum Corp. that he inherited from his father.
The report does leave out the money he has earned from his best-selling books and Oscar-winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth," given those profits go to fund climate advocacy activities. He is also a highly sought after speaker who receives speaking fees of $175,000 per event.
Gore is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most success venture capital firms and is often an advisor to some of the area's most promising start-ups as well.
Gore was criticized after the Business Week report with people voicing their displeasure on social media.
"So leftie turnip crunchers, seems yer poster boy Al Gore has achieved the 1%, almost catching greedy rich boy Romney," Twitter user Lee Alley recently posted on the social media site.
Romney, by contrast, made his fortune working at the highly publicized Bain Capital and has a personal fortune that is estimated to be about $400 million.
