Forbes owner Austin Russell became the youngest self-made billionaire in 2021.
Austin Russell is having a strong run. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier today that the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar,
which creates vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies primarily for self-driving cars,
is purchasing an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the business at close to $800 million.
The WSJ claims that Russell's share in the business comprises the residual stake held by the firm's namesake family,
who in 2014 sold 95% of the business to the Hong Kong-based investor group Integrated Whale Media.
Since canceling its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in June of last year,
when the market deteriorated and investors lost interest in SPACs, Forbes has virtually been on sale.
The timing of Luminar's IPO through a SPAC merger in 2021, when retail investors were still screaming for shares of mobility tech companies, was superior.