Mystery buyer revealed for $43M Laguna Beach mansion

The mystery buyer of a 10,000-square-foot beachside mansion in Laguna Beach for $43 million last year has been revealed.

William “Bill” McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow and among the highest-paid tech executives in the nation, bought the home at 2431 Riviera Drive, Dirt.com reported.

McDermott bought the Mediterranean Revival-style mansion in December 2021. The property was listed the next day for $45 million, according to Realtor.com.

McDermott bought the home from retired subprime mortgage executive Bob Cole, who had been trying to sell it since 2014. He bought it in 2005 for $29 million.

Over the past eight years, the Laguna Beach estate bounced on and off the market, initially asking as much as $55 million. The price sank to a low of $41 million before bouncing back to $45 million just before the McDermott sale.

The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom house is located in Irvine Cove, an exclusive gated community whose residents include billionaire Sue Gross, L.A. Fitness founder Chin Yol Yi, actor/producer Jon Favreau and “Cheers” creator James Burrows.

The three-story home, on a half-acre at the the bottom of a cul-de-sac, is the most private of the neighborhood’s five oceanfront estates.

Built in 1996, the McDermott mansion rises above the beach, where it has 180 feet of frontage, according to the listing.

It features imported limestone floors, artisanal bronze and crafted millwork throughout the house.

There’s an open kitchen with a granite-topped island leading to dining patios. Open-beam living and family rooms come with fireplaces. It has a wood-paneled library, plus six bedroom suites.

A Long Island native, McDermott became known for his 2010-2019 tenure as head of German software company SAP, during which time the company’s market cap more than tripled. His new Orange County palace is next door to a larger mansion owned by German billionaire Hasso Plattner, a co-founder of SAP.

In late 2019, McDermott left SAP to become CEO of the U.S. firm ServiceNow, an $80 billion cloud computing giant based in Santa Clara. Last year, he earned more than $165 million, a figure mostly made up of stock awards and options, according to Dirt.

But that was enough to make the ServiceNow executive the third-highest-paid CEO of an S&P 500 company – a pay package nearly double those of Apple CEO Tim Cook and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

Bill McDermott and his wife, Julie, live in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, considered the wealthiest in the nation, where he has bought and sold several homes. The couple has long kept a seaside vacation residence, including a $16.8 million estate they sold in 2018 on Florida’s Jupiter Island that was once owned by Country singer Alan Jackson.

The current all-time record price for a house in Orange County was set last year, also in Laguna Beach. Joseph Edelman, the billionaire founder of New York hedge fund Perceptive Advisors, paid $70 million for a mansion in Irvine Cove. The sale erased the previous record set by LoanDepot founder Anthony Hsieh, who bought a Newport Coast home for $61 million in 2020.

In August, a newly built spec house in Laguna Beach’s Emerald Bay sold for $43.5 million, making it OC’s priciest sale this year.

— Dana Bartholomew

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