AP Photo / Nati Harnik
- Rocket Companies, which owns Quicken Loans, went public Thursday and voted founder and chairman Dan Gilbert’s fortune to about $ 34 billion.
- Gilbert is close friends with Warren Buffett and has worked with the Berkshire Hathaway investor and CEO several times over the years.
- For example, Gilbert and Buffett sued Quicken employees in 2014 over a false sale, Berkshire secured a $ 1 billion Quicken marketing stunt the same year, and Buffett agreed to fund a bid for Yahoo by Gilbert and other investors that ultimately failed.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
Rocket Companies founder and chairman Dan Gilbert saw his net worth rise to $ 34 billion after mortgage lender Quicken Loans’ parent company opened on Thursday.
Gilbert – who is also the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and the founder and controlling shareholder of StockX, the online market for sneakers – now owns a fortune about half the size of Warren Buffett’s, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO is likely to cheer Gilbert on, as he has been friends and opportunity partners for several years.
“I’m an enormous fan of Dan and what he has done in Quicken Loans,” Buffett told CNBC in May 2016.
Read more: BANK OF AMERICA: Buy these 5 products now for profit next year as pandemic uncertainty raises prices and raises gold to $ 3,000
Rocket did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Promises, prizes, and pranks
Gilbert and Buffett first met at a conference years ago, and were spotted having lunch at Buffett’s hometown of Omaha, according to Reuters.
In 2012, Gilbert signed the Giving Pledge, which Buffett launched with Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the richest people in the world to donate at least half of their fortunes to philanthropic causes.
Gilbert called in Buffett two years later, when Quicken’s marketing team wanted to hold a $ 1 billion competition for each participant who fitted a perfect brace for the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
Not one succeeded, but Quicken paid Berkshire an estimated premium of $ 10 million to insure the prize, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.
Read more: 100 deals and $ 1 million in profit per year: Here’s how Mike Simmons made a simple change to his investment strategy that took him from small time flipper to full-fledged mogul
Gilbert also interviewed Buffett at an event called Detroit Homecoming in 2014. The couple revealed backstage that they met most of Quicken’s management team on April Fools’ Day that year: Gilbert falsely claimed that Berkshire had bought the company, and Buffett played together on a video call, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.
“I go with everything he comes up with, and so far I have not gone to jail,” Buffett joked at the time.
Buffett also agreed to fund a group of investors including Gilbert when they tried to buy Internet titanium Yahoo in 2016, Reuters said. The consortium’s bid eventually failed.
There is no mention of Buffett submitting outside the basketball stunt in Rocket’s first public offering. However, in light of her tie-ups over the years, it would be no surprise if Gilbert checks his names on future interviews and calls for earnings.
Read more: Investors are piling at an unusual rate in socially responsible ETFs – and Morgan Stanley says these 4 stocks are in the best position to take advantage of the trend
.
