9 Best Ever Investments

We have created for your delectation, a list of the 9 best investments ever. Given that this is such a broad topic, and given the fact that we simply don’t know the return on all investments in everything ever, our list cannot be said to be exhaustive. 

1. Goldman Sachs ICBC

Back in 2006, Goldman Sachs spent a whopping $2.58bn (£1.68bn) for a measly 4.9% stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ICBC. Sounds like a lot for a little, but apparently not. Three years later Sachs sold 20% of their stock (remember, $2.58bn initially) for $1.91bn (£1.25bn).

2. Kleiner Perkins Amazon

Now, this one works, but it works best if we pretend that it is still 1999. Cast your mind back. Will Smith is still cool. Everyone is excited about the millennium, despite the obvious fact that it isn’t really that exciting. Kleiner Perkins, those cunning foxes, currently have amazon.com stock that has risen by an incredible 55,000%. That’s a massive growth on investment. If only they’d sold it then, before it dropped like a stone!

3. Kleiner Perkins Netscape

1994 was a glorious year. America and Russia stopped aiming nukes at each other, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black President, and Kleiner Perkins invested $4m (£2.6m) for a 25% stake in a funny little company called Netscape. Fast forward a few years – AOL, pioneers of dial-up internet, buy the company for a whopping $4bn (£2.6bn). Kleiner Perkins’ return on their $4m (£2.6m) is $1bn

4. Benchmark Capital Ebay

In 1995, a new venture capital firm called Benchmark was launched. They promised to revolutionise their industry by using teamwork , and they had a focus on technology firms. Good thing they did, too – in 1997 they spent $6.7m (£4.4m) on a company known as eBay. By 1999, their share was valued at approximately $5bn (£3.3bn), one of the best performing stocks and shares ever to grace the Valley.

5. Sequoia Kleiner Perkins Google

Back in 1999, when Pikachu was cool and nobody had even heard of Osama Bin Laden, a pair of investment firms paid $25m (£16m) for a 20% stake in Google. Now, even for the promise of a decent return, $25m seems like a lot to stake. Google’s value at the time was around $125m (£81m). It subsequently grew to the point where ,in November 2008, Google’s market capitalisation was around $108bn (£70bn). A massive, massive, massive period of growth.

6. Peter Thiel Facebook

Back in 2005, a man named Peter Thiel paid $500,000 (£325,000) for a 10% stake in a website called Facebook. At the time it was like MySpace, but nowhere near as good. Fast forward seven years – suddenly, MySpace is like Facebook but nowhere near as good. Oh, and Facebook is now worth not $5m (£3.25m) but $33m (£21m). His initial $500,000 investment will now have grown by around 6,000%, to be worth in the region of two or three billion dollars.

7. Andy Bechtolsheim Google

Andy Bechtolsheim is a fascinating man who has managed to incorporate a very successful career working with computers in Silicone Valley with a very successful career investing in people that work with computers in Silicone Valley. King among these investments, and possibly all investments, was the $100,000 (£65,000) Bechtolsheim paid in 1998 to fund a company called Google. Now, it is 2012 and Bechtolsheim’s one hundred grand is worth a stonking $1.7 billion. His $100,000 (£65,000) is now worth seventeen thousand times as much as it was initially.

8. Major Banks Capitol Hill house

Teamwork pays. In terms of a return on investment, it’s pretty difficult to beat what the banks managed to achieve when, instead of going for each other’s throats, they decided to work together. Well. In 2008, the companies that were the principal beneficiaries of the congressional bailout bill spent $77m (£50m) lobbying the government, in addition to $37m (£24m) in campaign contributions. That $77m (£50m) dollars was wisely invested in convincing our dear legislators that banks couldn’t possibly be allowed to fail.

9. Ferdinand, Elizabeth and Columbus South America

This might not be an obvious choice, but it’s a lot more interesting than most investment stories. In 1492, Christopher Columbus needed investment. He had a harebrained idea that he could set sail in the wrong direction and reach India. The King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Elizabeth, having refused funding for the last two years, finally agreed.