Former GE Exec's Home Sells
For About Half of its Asking Price

Former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch has sold his Fairfield, Conn., home after three years on the market, for $6.9 million -- just over half what he once asked for it.

Now he's shunning listings entirely for another property he owns nearby, and putting it up for auction.

Mr. Welch had asked as much as $13 million for the six-acre Fairfield estate, whose sale closed last month. The eight-bedroom, 10,700-square-foot Georgian-style house, built in 1985, has nine baths and indoor basketball and squash courts. Mr. Welch paid $3.25 million for the house, called "Windswept," in 1990. Several years later he bought an adjacent two acres and combined the properties. The home also has three fireplaces and an attached one-bedroom guest house.

Mr. Welch put the property on the market during divorce proceedings from his second wife, Jane Beasley. The divorce became final in the summer of 2003, and Mr. Welch, 70 years old, is currently married to Suzy Welch, a former Harvard Business Review editor. The couple live in Boston. The property's price tag underwent several reductions and one increase, with the most recent listing, set last October, at $8.4 million. Brokers who have shown the property over the years say aging kitchen amenities and the small bathrooms turned some buyers off. Mr. Welch declined to comment. The buyer is listed on the deed as Michael J. Jones Trustee.

Waterfront House Built in 2003

As for the waterfront house Mr. Welch is auctioning, he built it in 2003 on land he bought in 1999 for $2.4 million, public records show. The 16-room Palladian Colonial-style home is in Southport, an affluent community with many second homes, about 50 miles northeast of Manhattan, and it sits on a small peninsula near the Mill River and Southport Harbor. The four-bedroom, 9,100-square-foot house has four full bathrooms, teak and mahogany doors, and red oak floors.

Several brokers familiar with the three-story home were surprised to learn it's being auctioned, and they estimated that it might fetch about $10 million on the open market. But Michael A. Fine, who's executive vice president at Sheldon Good & Co. Auctions, whose Northeast unit is handling the sale, says it isn't rare for sellers to skip listing a home and go directly to an auction house. The marketing period is shorter, and an owner can depend on a sale date, Mr. Fine adds. In Mr. Welch's case, he'll also keep a good deal of bargaining power on the final price. The sale is "with reserve," meaning he has the right to reject the final sealed bid, Mr. Fine says. The auction is set for June 20.

Ellison Splits Property, Sells

Oracle's chief executive, Larry Ellison, has just sold an acre in Atherton, Calif., for about $9 million, several people familiar with the deal say. The parcel was part of a 2.8-acre property that's been on the market for $25 million for a little over a year.

The one-acre parcel doesn't include any dwellings, but it has a four-car garage and a clay tennis court, according to the property's description. The deed doesn't name the purchase price; the buyer is listed as Northern Trust Bank of California.

Mr. Ellison's broker says the rest of the property is listed for $16 million. It includes a Japanese-style main house with seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and a dark-bottom, free-form swimming pool rimmed with boulders. Asian gardens, a koi pond, waterfalls and a Japanese teahouse surround the two-level estate. Mr. Ellison, 61 years old, bought the home in 1987 and spent several years extensively modifying the property, according to its listing agent, Mary Gullixson, of Alain Pinel Realtors in Menlo Park, Calif.

Mr. Ellison, a software billionaire, has the reputation of a high-tech contrarian -- in 1995, he predicted the death of the personal computer. He also owns a 23-acre estate in the nearby town of Woodside, Calif., that includes a replica of a 16th-century Japanese imperial villa. Last year, Mr. Ellison bought several beachfront properties in Malibu, Calif., including the 22-acre home of music producer David Foster for about $20 million. That nine-bedroom estate has three recording studios, a guest house, a pool and a spa.

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