Halsey Minor

Minor is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in anthropology. He grew up in Charlottesville and attended Woodberry Forest School, a private, all-male boarding school in Woodberry Forest, Virginia. Minor, who sold San Francisco-based CNET Networks Inc. to CBS Corp. in 2008, now says he owes as much as $100 million and only has, at most, $50 million to pay his debts thanks to bad bets on real estate and other ventures that took him out of what he calls his technology comfort zone. Shelby Bonnie, who co-founded CNET with Minor, declined to comment. After years of technology investing, Minor embraced real estate. In February 2008, Minor bought the Carter’s Grove Plantation from Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for $15.3 million. The 400-plus acre estate, with a mile of frontage on the James River, was at one time a museum. Its 12-bedroom Georgian mansion was built for Carter Burwell, a scion of one of the richest families in colonial Virginia, in the 1750s. Architect magazine said Minor planned to raise racehorses on the property. Carter’s Grove filed for bankruptcy protection in San Francisco in 2011, according to Minor’s petition. In 2001, Fortune ranked Minor as the 34th wealthiest American under the age of 40, with a net worth of $180.2 million.