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62-485: Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson has said that his company will soon be a mainly Chinese enterprise, and that Las Vegas should be called "America's Macau". The president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation predicted on February 12, 2007 that Macau's gaming revenue has topped that of the Las Vegas Strip and will more than double again by 2010. The casino opened on May 18, 2004 at

124-462: A Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom , which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition

186-400: A "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $ 5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $ 100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $ 5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $ 60,000 to

248-611: A cash infusion from Thomas Weisel Capital Partners, which had previously invested in the company. In November 2006, Forbes magazine reported that United Business Media PLC had purchased the events assets of MediaLive International Inc. Personal Computer Faire in San Francisco, the Northeast Computer Faire in Boston, and Southern California Computer Faire were presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, Mass.,

310-826: A casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore . The new casino, Marina Bay Sands , opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $ 5.5 billion. In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$ 8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai . MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari , Chanel ,

372-451: A chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur . In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for

434-623: A cost of $ 240 million. All of the mortgage bonds that were issued to finance construction were paid off in May 2005. In 2006, the casino completed an expansion increasing the casino from 165,000 sq ft (15,300 m) to 229,000 sq ft (21,300 m). A new hotel tower opened in late 2007, bringing the property's total room count to 289. 22°11′30″N 113°33′16″E  /  22.19167°N 113.55444°E  / 22.19167; 113.55444 Sheldon Adelson Sheldon Gary Adelson (August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021)

496-489: A launch platform for key technologies. Bluetooth and USB had conference programming and associated exhibition floor pavilions to help these technologies and start up companies be seen in such a large event and marketplace. In 1982, Microsoft founder Bill Gates attended the conference and saw a demonstration of VisiCorp 's Visi On , a GUI software suite for IBM PC compatible computers. The development of Windows 1.0 began soon thereafter. In 1999, Linus Torvalds attended

558-530: A lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. In December 2015, Adelson purchased

620-580: A mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush , Chris Christie , Scott Walker , and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas . During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of

682-445: A major technical convention , with the industry making major product announcements and releases there. Numerous small companies from around the world rose to prominence following appearance at COMDEX, and industry leaders sought opportunities to make keynote addresses. They discussed the computer industry, history, trends and future potential. The first COMDEX Conference, attracted 4000 paying attendees and grew to over 100,000, becoming

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744-417: A newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom , was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon . In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom , but that it is owned by a relative of his. According to

806-753: A short time, e.g. Gothenburg and São Paulo 2004 and the last in Athens in November 2005. The decline occurred globally: the 2000 show in Basel with 1400 exhibitors drew 79000 attendees, but 2001 17% less. Following COMDEX Fall 1999 (in Las Vegas), organizers made major changes to their criteria for admission of mass media , adjusting criteria to accommodate bloggers with significant market reach, but also restricting simple and open access to anyone declaring themselves 'media'. It offered regular public attendance for

868-500: A subsidiary of Prentice-Hall. Northeast Computer Faire 1988 was presented by The Interface Group and Boston Computer Society in Boston. COMDEX was initially restricted to those directly involved in the computer industry. It was the one show where all levels of manufacturers and developers of computers, peripherals , software , components, and accessories met with distributors, retailers, consultants and their competitors. Colloquially known as " Geek Week", COMDEX evolved into

930-606: A veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management. Many reporters and editors left

992-481: The Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described

1054-515: The 2012 United States presidential election cycle. On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $ 5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future . By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $ 3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary , which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as

1116-654: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians , Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his " hard-right agenda". Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite

1178-573: The Mueller investigation into Russian interference , and the 2020 campaign . He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu . In 2020, Forbes listed his net worth as US$ 29.8 billion. Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston , the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family

1240-552: The Republican National Committee . In June 2012, Adelson donated $ 10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson , John Rakolta , Paul Singer , and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek , as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $ 30 million for

1302-581: The Sands Expo and Convention Center , then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S. In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $ 1.5 billion to construct The Venetian , a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999. In the late 2000s, Adelson and

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1364-528: The U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics . A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor." Fighting cannabis legalization

1426-926: The Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008. Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute , a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada. In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC 's list of 200 people who have transformed business over

1488-657: The second inauguration of George W. Bush . President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008. Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch , a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic -leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org . "Almost all" of

1550-476: The $ 140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas. Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon,

1612-565: The $ 30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson. In 2010, Adelson donated $ 1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future , a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich . In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency , Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read

1674-610: The 2012 election cycle. Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated. Early in 2014, Adelson donated $ 2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee,

1736-629: The Bethlehem casino for $ 1.3 billion to Alabama-based Wind Creek Hospitality. The new owner, Wind Creek Hospitality, is owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians . The casino's new name is The Wind Creek Bethlehem . Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau . The 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) Sands Macao became China 's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $ 265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of

1798-635: The Cotai Strip by 2010. Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $ 9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission , which included no admission of wrongdoing. In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct

1860-602: The Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom , the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon , and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal . Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private organization focusing on support of Israel. He was Donald Trump 's largest donor, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign , his presidential inauguration , his defense fund against

1922-608: The Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool , night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms. In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv . When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli ,

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1984-499: The age of 15, he borrowed $ 10,000 (equivalent to $ 126,814 in 2023) from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York , but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army. After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed

2046-659: The campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $ 1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative . Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid , Adelson cited

2108-465: The candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump . The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $ 100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan. In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to

2170-683: The company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania . It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009. In 2010, during the Great Recession , Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it." In 2019, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. sold

2232-772: The computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $ 862 million; Adelson's share was over $ 500 million. In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $ 110 million (approximately equivalent to $ 283,390,000 in 2023). The next year, he and his partners built

2294-908: The dealers to support those products. . The broadening of audience criteria came about as IT departments decentralized and purchasing of technology products shifted from a central corporate IT budget to departments and company divisions, mirroring the shift from mainframes to decentralized networks and local area networking, and later the Internet as the corporate backbone. After the Spring 1981 show in New York City and 1982 in Atlantic City , COMDEX began regular spring shows in Atlanta, Georgia from 1983 through 1988. Then alternated sites between Atlanta and Chicago . The final Atlanta Spring COMDEX

2356-455: The desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words". During the Suen trial , Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented

2418-569: The exhibition to talk about the Linux family of operating system . A Linux conference and exhibition hall was a co-located event, helping elevate the open source products. In the late 1980s, COMDEX was opened to the general public, causing an explosion in attendance, but diluting COMDEX's wholesale industry focus. Retailers and consultants complained that 'leading edge' customers, upon whom they relied for early adoption of new technology, were buying products at 'show specials' and then expecting

2480-457: The general public. In 2000, major companies such as IBM , Apple , and Compaq (now merged with Hewlett-Packard ) decided to discontinue their involvement with COMDEX to allocate resources more efficiently, usually through their own corporate events or other direct-to-consumer selling (Apple Stores), and the bursting of the dot-com bubble caused a decline on the IT market. To reduce costs following

2542-498: The history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates. During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries , Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney . Altogether he spent $ 92 million supporting losing candidates during

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2604-578: The importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee. For the 2018 United States elections , Adelson donated approximately $ 113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees . COMDEX COMDEX (an abbreviation of COMputer Dealers' EXhibition ) was a computer expo trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada , United States , each November from 1979 to 2003. It

2666-479: The last 25 years. According to The New Yorker , Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties. The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley , a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with

2728-502: The legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives . The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, was met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party. Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with

2790-450: The market downturns after the 9/11 attacks many would-be exhibitors stopped renting out or scaled back official COMDEX booths on the convention center floors, and set up invitation-only suites in various Las Vegas hotels. This also allowed exhibitors to concentrate their efforts on industry attendees rather than the general public. COMDEX/Fall 2001 organizers at Los Angeles-based Key3Media Group Inc. said they expected attendance to fall from

2852-509: The middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in

2914-418: The newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson. The Las Vegas Review-Journal

2976-561: The personal computer had become a commodity item priced at levels individual departments and consumers overall could buy without needing much corporate oversight, so "computers" became just one of many products in the consumer electronics channels and the Consumer Electronics Show. A COMDEX event originally designed to exist only on the internet without a physical meeting location. It was announced to commence during November 16–17, 2010. The COMDEX website (www.comdex.com)

3038-465: The political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $ 1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug . According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support

3100-531: The previous year's 200,000 to 150,000. They also expected the number of exhibitors to decline from 2,350 to 2,000 and the square footage of exhibitor space to slide from just over 1 million to 750,000. The last Las Vegas show in November 2003 attracted only 500 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors. In June 2004, COMDEX cancelled the 2004 exhibition in Las Vegas, effectively making the Consumer Electronics Show its replacement in Las Vegas. By 2004

3162-797: The stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times. In August 2007, Adelson opened the $ 2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip , after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons , Sheraton , and St. Regis . His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $ 12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on

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3224-544: The union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money". In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he

3286-609: Was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition." In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $ 250,000 to

3348-486: Was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine . Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age. Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug . At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to

3410-545: Was an American businessman, investor , political donor , and donor to Donald Trump . He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore , and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operated The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center before selling the properties in early 2022. He owned

3472-524: Was held in New York City . COMDEX was started by The Interface Group , whose organizers included Sheldon Adelson , and Richard Katzeff. In 1995, they sold the show to the Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank Corp . In 2001, Softbank sold the show to Key3Media, a spin-off of Ziff Davis . After entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2003, Key3Media resurfaced as Medialive International with

3534-573: Was held in 1997; the last Spring COMDEX was planned for Chicago in April 2003 but cancelled. The first COMDEX show outside the US was held in Amsterdam 1982. In the record years 1998 and 2000, 21 exhibitions were arranged yearly all over the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and other parts of America. 69% of the 185 shows took place outside the US. Even when the US shows were cancelled, they kept on for

3596-470: Was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother emigrated from England , and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner . His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop. He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $ 200 from his uncle (equivalent to $ 3,385 in 2023) and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston . In 1948, at

3658-523: Was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT , and one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector. COMDEX exhibitions were held in many other countries from 1982 to 2005, with 185 shows altogether. The first COMDEX was held in 1979 at the MGM Grand (now Horseshoe ), with 167 exhibitors and 3904 attendees. In 1981, the first COMDEX/Spring

3720-551: Was operated by TechWeb , a United Business Media company. Everything Channel and sister company UBM studios (both United Business Media Companies) partnered to deliver COMDEXvirtual (www.comdexvirtual.com) to the global IT channel community in November 2010. Nearly 5,000 attended the event over the course of the two days, making COMDEXvirtual the largest independent virtual tradeshow in the IT industry. The agenda featured more than 100 speakers and nearly 50 sessions on topics ranging from cloud to mobility and virtualization, to address

3782-466: Was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv , and 6.8% for Haaretz . This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened

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3844-418: Was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016. In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in

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