Allen's right-hand man leaves

Bill Savoy, the former golden boy who orchestrated Paul Allen's investment strategy during the go-go 1990s, has left the billionaire's Vulcan investment company, officially to "pursue personal interests."

Savoy, 39, was out of his job as of Friday, and Vulcan announced the exit yesterday after markets closed. In a short statement, the company said Savoy will continue to serve as a consultant and on the board of directors of Charter Communications, the troubled cable company in which Allen owns a majority stake.

Vulcan said it has started looking for a replacement.

"Bill Savoy has a long history with Vulcan and has been involved in almost every one of its investments," Allen said. "I appreciate Bill's desire to move on to new challenges."

Vulcan spokesman Michael Nank said he could say only that Savoy resigned. He would not say whether the resignation was forced, whether Savoy has a legal agreement with Vulcan to keep quiet about his departure, or whether he received a severance payment. Savoy could not be reached for comment.

Savoy was 26 when he joined Vulcan in 1990 to oversee Allen's technology investments. Allen recruited him to Seattle after Savoy had helped sell a troubled software company in which Allen had invested.

Savoy described his job as putting Allen's "Wired World" into reality by finding and investing in companies that fit Allen's vision. He also described himself as guard at the door of Allen's vault.

At Vulcan, Savoy directed millions of dollars into some of the Internet's most promising companies, including Priceline.com, drugstore.com and CNET. One of the most successful was the Internet portal Go2Net, sold for $4 billion to Seattle's InfoSpace in 2000.

In 1999, Industry Standard magazine dubbed Savoy the tech world's "Most Powerful Consigliore." Savoy, who is 5-foot-7, developed a reputation for being intense, competitive, brash, decisive and to some, "Napoleonic."

Property records show that he has a $5 million home in the exclusive Eastside suburb of Medina.

For years, he had his hands in nearly all of Allen's interests in sports, music, movies, technology, biotechnology and real estate.

But many of Allen's Internet investments were flops, and Savoy took much of the blame from investors and analysts who complained Allen has seemed to have a reverse Midas touch in recent years.

In a November 2000 profile by Bloomberg News, music and movie mogul David Geffen said, "If Savoy's not the center of the deal-making world, he's pretty close to it." In the story, Savoy admitted to being a workaholic and said he relaxes by scuba diving in Papua New Guinea or Belize.

In the story, Savoy wouldn't discuss his family, but it said he left home in 1980 as a 16-year-old runaway. He put himself through college, triple-majoring in accounting, finance and computer science at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts.

At 24, he became chief financial officer of Layered Inc., an accounting software firm Allen had invested in during the 1980s. Allen had decided to pull the plug on the money-losing company. Savoy caught his eye when he argued that the company had value and he was able to secure financing and sell the company.

Savoy's is the most recent departure from Vulcan. Senior managers in investments and public relations and at Experience Music Project have left recently, in addition to many others.

In May, Vulcan cut 100 jobs, largely on in-house technology projects, trimming its payroll to 400. The company said many of its investments had soured, and it was time to tighten its belt.

Several sources close to Vulcan say it is common knowledge Allen has been cleaning house out of frustration with investment performance, replacing longtime investment managers with new advisers, many from New York. Vulcan also has brought in experienced professionals for some of its key interests — Ada Healey in real estate and Patricia Beckmann, a former Immunex scientist hired to help with biotech investing. The culture has become more intense and rigorous, less freewheeling, sources said.

This month, Allen was rated the world's fourth-richest man in 2003 by Forbes magazine, with a net worth that rose by $1 billion to $22 billion. But like many people's portfolios, it is far from its peak. The magazine pegged Allen's net worth at $40 billion in 1999.

Bruce Montgomery, chief executive of the Seattle drug company Corus Pharma, said he didn't think Savoy's departure would signal any change in direction for Allen's investing strategy. He said investment decisions were made by lower-level specialists.

As recently as two weeks ago, Allen gave $100 million to establish a world-class nonprofit brain-research center in Seattle. Montgomery has seen no slowdown in Vulcan's plans to build on nearly 50 acres of property in the South Lake Union area.

Dan Rosen, managing partner with Frazier Technology Ventures in Seattle, recalled that near the peak of the stock-market bubble, Savoy sold a lot of Allen's holdings in Internet stocks.

"He said anything that was liquid he could get out of, he did," Rosen said. "It was a brilliant strategy.

"He was the financial genius behind Vulcan. It's never surprising when someone that good, with so much to offer, decides to do something else."

Luke Timmerman: 206-515-5644 or ltimmerman@seattletimes.com.

Marty McOmber: 206-464-2022 or mmcomber@seattletimes.com.

Seattle Times researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.