Latest news with #Cannon-Brookes
Daily Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Telegraph
Tech guru Mike Cannon-Brookes buys $15.2m bachelor pad
Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is the confirmed $15.2m buyer of the New York warehouse-style penthouse on the top level of Angus House in Darlinghurst. The 585sq m apartment, which won the 2023 Master Builders Association Best Renovation award, was bought by the Cannon-Brookes family company directed by chief executive Casey Taylor and financial officer Faris Cosic. MORE: Trump's newest project sets wild new record It was sold by Dr Jonathan Seeff and his wife, Rachelle, who had paid $5.555m for the four-bedroom apartment that occupies the top floor of the former head office of Moran Health Care. The building at the corner of Stanley and Palmer streets was initially redeveloped by developer duo Theo Onisforou and James Packer in the late 1990s into 18 apartments. Cannon-Brookes, who split from wife Annie in mid-2023, enjoys a wealth of $29bn. MORE: Trick rich are using to get $200m+ mansions It adds to Cannon-Brookes' vast property empire worth in excess of $350m, that includes properties in Pittwater and Newport on Sydney's northern beaches, a number of homes in the southern highlands and Point Piper's Fairwater, the long-time home of media barons the Fairfaxes and at one-time Australia's most expensive house when it traded hands – to Cannon-Brookes – for $100m in 2018. Several of those properties have been at the heart of break-up proceedings between Cannon-Brookes and his ex-wife Annie, following the couple's separation in mid-2023 after 13 years together. The tech guru is also the owner of a $120m 'house-like' private jet, despite his climate change leanings. MORE: Chilling reason home builds abandoned Meanwhile, a Surry Hills warehouse conversion, formerly the Labor Club premises, has been sold for $12.4m by Dr Andrew Goy. He had been seeking a buyer for the Bourke St property since last August, originally hoping for $14m Stephen Collins was commissioned to convert the 370sq m space into a four-bedroom, five-bathroom abode after its $2.8m purchase in 2008. + Additional reporting James MacSmith
News.com.au
05-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Tech guru Mike Cannon-Brookes buys $15.2m bachelor pad
Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is the confirmed $15.2m buyer of the New York warehouse-style penthouse on the top level of Angus House in Darlinghurst. The 585sq m apartment, which won the 2023 Master Builders Association Best Renovation award, was bought by the Cannon-Brookes family company directed by chief executive Casey Taylor and financial officer Faris Cosic. It was sold by Dr Jonathan Seeff and his wife, Rachelle, who had paid $5.555m for the four-bedroom apartment that occupies the top floor of the former head office of Moran Health Care. The building at the corner of Stanley and Palmer streets was initially redeveloped by developer duo Theo Onisforou and James Packer in the late 1990s into 18 apartments. Cannon-Brookes, who split from wife Annie in mid-2023, enjoys a wealth of $29bn. It adds to Cannon-Brookes' vast property empire worth in excess of $350m, that includes properties in Pittwater and Newport on Sydney's northern beaches, a number of homes in the southern highlands and Point Piper's Fairwater, the long-time home of media barons the Fairfaxes and at one-time Australia's most expensive house when it traded hands – to Cannon-Brookes – for $100m in 2018. Several of those properties have been at the heart of break-up proceedings between Cannon-Brookes and his ex-wife Annie, following the couple's separation in mid-2023 after 13 years together. The tech guru is also the owner of a $120m 'house-like' private jet, despite his climate change leanings. Meanwhile, a Surry Hills warehouse conversion, formerly the Labor Club premises, has been sold for $12.4m by Dr Andrew Goy. He had been seeking a buyer for the Bourke St property since last August, originally hoping for $14m Stephen Collins was commissioned to convert the 370sq m space into a four-bedroom, five-bathroom abode after its $2.8m purchase in 2008.
Japan Times
21-03-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Billionaire's private jet angst won't save the world
Mike Cannon-Brookes — co-founder and chief executive officer of enterprise software business Atlassian and Australia's fifth-richest person with a $13.2 billion fortune — is suffering a "deep internal conflict' about taking on the trappings of the billionaire lifestyle. In a posting on LinkedIn recently, he poured out his heart about reconciling his convictions as a climate activist with his actions as a tech boss — in particular, Atlassian's decision to sponsor a Formula One team and his purchase of a Bombardier 7500 private jet. "There's a couple of reasons I've purchased a plane,' he sighed. "Personal security is the primary reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but also so I can run a global business from Australia and still be a constantly present dad.' As a fellow fortysomething Australian dad, I can sympathize a bit. I'd like to reduce my carbon footprint by getting my own electric car, instead of the battered 2008 Toyota Prius I share with my ex-wife. But money doesn't grow on trees and we all have to make climate compromises somewhere. The range of choices available to us, however, is governed by the institutional setup we live in. Cannon-Brookes could reduce his carbon footprint by moving away from the isolated southern hemisphere country where Atlassian earns only 11% of its revenue. I could cut back on Uber Eats to afford the payments on an electric car lease. In each case, though, technology and regulations make the polluting option a no-brainer. That's not meant to be just snark. One of the most profound problems in the energy transition is that carbon pollution is more or less free. Even places like Europe which have been trading emission permits for two decades mostly levy them only on major facilities like power stations. That means it's easy for the rest of us to choose the carbon-intensive option. The most substantive of these choices is not what Cannon-Brookes is doing with his plane, but with his business. Right now, the most important aspect of this is artificial intelligence. Atlassian sells software products such as Jira and Trello, which help businesses run their operations more effectively. Revenues largely depend on the number of white-collar professionals signed up and they're threatened by the possibility that many of those clients are going to be automated out of their jobs in the years ahead. As a result, Atlassian is trying to persuade customers that its own cloud-based technologies and AI can make it more useful to them than ever. The carbon cost of this is significant. Data center emissions in the U.S. already rival those of the domestic airline industry and are growing far quicker. Atlassian's pollution from "purchased goods and services' — mostly data centers — has increased 77% in the past two fiscal years as it has embraced the inevitability of AI, along with the rest of the tech sector. This now amounts to about two-thirds of its rapidly expanding footprint — well ahead of the 22% from every business trip taken by its 12,000-odd employees, not to mention the sliver one private jet would represent. Put a reasonable price on all that carbon and any money being made disappears. Gross profits over the six years Atlassian has reported comprehensive emissions have amounted to 19 cents per metric ton of its total footprint, compared to an average $52 per ton for European carbon permits over the period. The company's main strategy for fixing this is encouraging its suppliers to set credible net-zero targets, but just 12.3% had done so last June. The comforting response to this is to accuse do-gooder private-jet fliers such as Cannon-Brookes and Taylor Swift of hypocrisy. The tougher realization is that not doing enough is always the easy option. We're all victims of temptation when it comes to climate pollution, though the consequences of that are vastly larger when you have immense personal wealth to deploy. Cannon-Brookes is a rare billionaire who has actually put money where his mouth is on climate, whether it's buying a 10% stake in generator AGL Energy to push a faster closure of coal plants or funding a quixotic plan to export renewable electricity from Australia to Singapore. That's a far better record than the U.S. moguls who cut funding for climate initiatives and ingratiated themselves with President Donald Trump as soon as net zero fell from fashion. The problem isn't that the rich are hypocrites — it's that they're powerful. Zeroing out emissions may force us all to make choices we'd rather not make. That's likely to hurt even the most conscience-plagued billionaires, and in most societies, they'll have an outsized ability to block needed political change. It's up to ordinary voters to ensure the complaints of a handful of moguls don't limit the scope of what we'll do to halt climate change. The modern liberal-democratic society we've built, bolstered by a stable environment, is a precious one. If we don't want it to perish from the earth, we need an alternative to a government of billionaires, by billionaires, for billionaires. David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy.
Gulf News
14-03-2025
- Business
- Gulf News
Billionaire Cannon-Brookes: Climate advocate's 'deep internal conflict' over use of private jet
Mike Cannon-Brookes Portraits Mike Cannon-Brookes, an Australian billionaire known for his stance on climate change, said he has a deep internal conflict over the use of his private jet for travel. The co-founder of software giant Atlassian Corp. in a LinkedIn post said his plane helps him stay safe and that he's more than offsetting the carbon footprint of his trips, reiterating his support for a future of sustainable energy. 'I'm not denying I have a deep internal conflict on this one,' he wrote following local media reports Thursday that he had bought a Bombardier Inc. jet. 'Personal security is the primary reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but also so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad.' The tech tycoon's LinkedIn post also comes at a time of scrutiny following Atlassian's recent move to sponsor F1 team Williams Racing, with the first race of the season in Melbourne on Sunday. 'I can appreciate the double-take on Atlassian's F1 sponsorship because... cars = fuel,' he wrote. 'I've had conversations with the FIA, and am impressed with their plans to get to net zero.' Cannon-Brookes went on to say that his commitment to climate action is as 'strong as ever.' 'I'm still pretty damn focused on making an impact at a large scale, removing huge volumes of emissions through active investments and philanthropy…and have the proud, scars to prove it.' While it's far from unusual for ultra-wealthy business owners to fly on their own private planes, Cannon-Brookes' position is notable due to his green-energy work. Through his investment firm Grok Ventures, he tried in 2022 to take over Australian energy provider AGL Energy Ltd. with an aim to accelerate its transition away from coal to more renewable sources. Cannon-Brookes has a net worth of about $12.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Sign up for the Daily Briefing Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox
The Guardian
14-03-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Billionaire climate campaigner Mike Cannon-Brookes defends buying private jet and sponsoring F1 team
The Australian billionaire and outspoken climate advocate Mike Cannon-Brookes has defended buying a private jet and his company's new sponsorship of the Williams Formula One racing team. Cannon-Brookes admitted to 'deep internal conflict' over the purchase of the jet, reportedly a Bombardier 7500, but claimed that technology to directly capture CO2 from the atmosphere, and the use of sustainable jet fuel, would cancel emissions from his flights. Cannon-Brookes sought to explain the reasons why he bought the jet and Atlassian's F1 sponsorship in an almost-500 word post to LinkedIn, hours after the Australian Financial Review had written about the billionaire's new jet. Estimated to be worth US$13bn by Forbes, Cannon-Brookes said he bought a private jet 'so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad' which was a 'hard, continual tradeoff I've decided to make'. On the sponsorship of the Williams F1 team, Cannon-Brookes said he appreciated 'the double take' on the deal because 'cars=fuel'. Cannon-Brookes has gained a reputation for being outspoken on climate issues, but has faced strong criticism of the F1 sponsorship and the jet. 'It probably comes as no surprise, I have an extremely rigorous carbon regime for all my flying – including using direct air capture and sustainable fuels for the carbon and contrails, to far exceed my flight footprint,' he wrote. 'These options aren't practical for commercial flights – but are viable privately. This means my flights actually have a net negative carbon footprint.' In 2023 Atlassian, the software company he co-founded, issued a guide titled 'Don't F&*! The Planet' to help other companies cut their emissions. In his LinkedIn post, Cannon-Brookes says he had conversations with Formula One's governing body, the FIA, and was 'impressed with their plans to get to net zero'. According to F1's latest report on sustainability, the sport was responsible for 223,031 tonnes of CO2 in 2023. While the fuel burned by the racing cars was less than 1% of the sport's footprint, the vehicles would shift to 100% sustainable fuel derived from waste and sources of non-food biomass by 2026. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Cannon-Brookes said the Williams team's moves to cut emissions 'mirrors Atlassian's own journey'. 'F1 can set a global example for sustainability in sports – and I believe it will,' he said. 'I believe in a sustainable future. I believe in constant, practical forward motion. I well understand that takes hard, continual tradeoffs (which aren't the same as denying or delaying). 'My commitment to climate is as strong as ever. I'm still pretty damn focused on making an impact at a large scale, removing huge volumes of emissions through active investments and philanthropy … and have the proud scars to prove it.' Cannon-Brookes said he remained determined to help transform Australia into a 'renewable energy superpower'. 'I am still a deep believer that decarbonisation is the single greatest economic opportunity for Australia.'
