Al Gore Richer Than Romney Thanks to Current TV Sale (Report)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Post-vice presidential life has been very good to Al Gore.

Thanks to the $500 million sale of his liberal news station Current TV to Al Jazeera this month, Gore now has a personal fortune of $300 million, Forbes magazine estimates. That puts him ahead of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, whose estimated $230 million left him vulnerable to charges that he was out of touch with the common man.

The financial publication ascribes Gore's wealth to a series of savvy investments that substantially multiplied the $2 million he listed as assets when he ran and lost the presidential race to George W. Bush in 2000.

From his reported 20 percent share of Current, Gore will receive a $100 million pre-tax payday. But that's not the only evidence of his golden touch. Forbes notes that Gore holds more than $35 million in stock and options through his work as a board member of Apple and could have received a hefty compensation package from his stint as a senior adviser on environmental issues to Google, which started before the search giant went public.

Also filling Gore's coffers was his work in financial services companies like Metropolitan West Financial and his position in Generation Investment Management, which he co-founded with former Goldman Sachs executive David Blood. That company handles some $7 billion in assets, Forbes reports.

Not everyone is happy about Gore's newfound mega-wealth. On CNN's site, media watchdog Howard Kurtz questioned the former vice president's decision to sell his company to a news organization like Al Jazeera that has financial ties to the government of Qatar.

"The marketplace will decide its fate," Kurtz opined. "But there is something unsettling about Gore making off with such a big payday from a government-subsidized channel after making such bad television. Nice work if you can get it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-gore-richer-romney-thanks-current-tv-sale-210938557.html

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