In short order:
* Charter Communications, the cable company that Allen is said to have a 50% stake in, has filed for bankruptcy, after not making interest payments of $73 million dollars. The bankruptcy reduced the company's debt by 8 billion dollars. Reportedly, Charter had 21 billion dollars in long term debt. For a look at Charter's stock price free fall, click here. Allen did receive some much-needed good news regarding Charter in the form of President Obama's stimulus bill -- which should net him some tax savings.
* Last month, Paul Allen reportedly laid off 50 employees at Vulcan, 9 percent of the total staff.
* Here's Microsoft's stock price history. As recently as April 2008, Microsoft was trading at 31. Today, it trades at 17. According to the most recent report I could find, Paul Allen owned 136 million shares of Microsoft stock as recently as 2006. Obviously this number could have changed dramatically in the last 3 years. But that stake, at last April's stock price, would have been worth roughly 4.2 billion dollars. Based on today's stock price, that holding would be worth roughly 2.2 billion dollars.
* On Valentine's Day it was announced that Paul Allen sold off his remaining stake in DreamWorks Animation Studio, ending a fifteen year business relationship.
