Va. biz mogul faces foreclosure

The Hook has an interesting story about Charlottesville-raised entrepreneur Halsey Minor and his economic troubles.

Minor, who founded and sold CNET.com, is facing a foreclosure notice on his 205-acre estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Fox Ridge Farm.

According to the story Minor fell behind on a million dollar equity loan, which was made by a local investor. But the winner of the foreclosure auction scheduled for December 21 won’t be able to buy the property free and clear, these is another outstanding debt of $6.5 million on the property which would be assumed by the buyer.

From the article:

As for Minor, as the head of San Francisco-based Minor Ventures, he hasn’t rested on his early masterstrokes, despite amassing a reported $355 million in wealth at the height of the late 20th century technology boom. Two years ago, he sold GrandCentral, a company recently rebranded as Google Voice, for an amount estimated at upwards of $50 million.

More recently, however, Minor has faced three multi-million-dollar creditor actions including an October federal court’s summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch Private Finance. He has angrily denied any cash-flow problems and traced the lawsuits to a sort of panic mentality among creditors. Could Fox Ridge’s foreclosure be part of that?

Read the rest here.