Asked how much the Falcon cost Perkins, he tells Stahl, "The rule of thumb, Lesley, is that a big yacht costs about a million dollars a meter."
The Maltese Falcon is 88 meters long.
"I know it cost more than $88 million," Stahl remarks. "I've heard about $150 million. But I've also heard $300 million."
"No, not $300 million," Perkins says. "That's too much."
"Why don't, why won't you tell us? You've told us everything else. You don't seem to be embarrassed about everything else?" Stahl says.
"I'm embarrassed about that," Perkins admits.
Asked why, Perkins says, "There's the homeless and charity and there's lots of things you could do with that money that would improve the world, right?"
"Oh, good point. That you bring up yourself?" Stahl asks.
"Yeah," Perkins says. "So, you know, 'How selfish is this guy?' is, I guess, is the criticism. So the answer's pretty selfish, but I'm just not gonna put a number on it."
Why did it have to be the biggest boat?
"Lesley, I could give you some technical reasons on why it really has got to be big to work right. But I just wanted the biggest boat. Let's admit it," he says.
"It’s ego," Stahl remarks.
"Do I have an ego? Yes," Perkins admits. "Is it big? Yes."
Tom Perkins said the same thing in the CBS interview link (video and text-transcript, Page 2) that Jonknee posted in this thread.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/60minutes/main3442...
Asked how much the Falcon cost Perkins, he tells Stahl, "The rule of thumb, Lesley, is that a big yacht costs about a million dollars a meter."
The Maltese Falcon is 88 meters long.
"I know it cost more than $88 million," Stahl remarks. "I've heard about $150 million. But I've also heard $300 million."
"No, not $300 million," Perkins says. "That's too much."
"Why don't, why won't you tell us? You've told us everything else. You don't seem to be embarrassed about everything else?" Stahl says.
"I'm embarrassed about that," Perkins admits.
Asked why, Perkins says, "There's the homeless and charity and there's lots of things you could do with that money that would improve the world, right?"
"Oh, good point. That you bring up yourself?" Stahl asks.
"Yeah," Perkins says. "So, you know, 'How selfish is this guy?' is, I guess, is the criticism. So the answer's pretty selfish, but I'm just not gonna put a number on it."
Why did it have to be the biggest boat?
"Lesley, I could give you some technical reasons on why it really has got to be big to work right. But I just wanted the biggest boat. Let's admit it," he says.
"It’s ego," Stahl remarks.
"Do I have an ego? Yes," Perkins admits. "Is it big? Yes."