OC'S WEALTHIEST

Orange County Business Journal, Aug 9-Aug 15, 2004 by Padilla, Mathew, Lyster, Michael, Simons, Andrew, Cruz, Sherri, Bellantonio, Jennifer

We value Nicholas slightly higher based on what our sources call good investments in real estate and other areas. And while both are generous donors, Samueli has given more money away.

Since Nicholas left Broadcom in early 2003, amid changes at the company and his family, he's been selling off chunks of his shares, putting him just behind Samueli in ownership. Nicholas has been selling to diversify his wealth and to lessen the shadow he casts over Broadcom.

Samueli also has been selling shares as part of a diversification plan.

Both men control a third of the company's voting stock. Nicholas no longer is on the board, having resigned as a director last year.

Even with recent sales, the wealth of both men still is tied to Broadcom, the chipmaker they started in 1991. During the tech boom, their Broadcom shares made them the richest people in OC.

Nicholas became the poster-boy tech billionaire, complete with a hilltop mansion in Laguna Niguel's Nellie Gale, fast cars and a private jet. The lower key Samueli lives in Corona del Mar and has emerged as one of the nation's top philanthropists.

This year, Nicholas and Samueli drop down a notch on our list from 2003 with a jump by No. 2 Ernest Rady of Westcorp Inc.

Nicholas and Samueli struck gold when their original stakes in the company went public in a bang-up 1998 offering.

Nicholas has been distancing himself from the company but still plays a role in Broadcom affairs. He's said to get product briefings and had a hand in last year's search for a Broadcom chief executive, an effort that's ongoing.

After some soul-searching, Samueli elected not to take the chief executive's job, saying research at Broadcom would suffer.

Samueli has other interests. He formed a company to oversee management of the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim late last year in a $45 million deal. On top of that, he's said to be looking to add a basketball team to the arena.

Nicholas and Samueli first worked together at TRW Inc. designing chips for the military. They later joined Tustin-based PairGain Technologies Inc., now part of ADC Telecommunication Inc.

A former Air Force Academy student, Nicholas was Samueli's first doctorate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, before turning business partner.

Samueli is revered as a visionary, an engineering genius. He's given generously to the University of California's Irvine and Los Angeles campuses, which renamed their engineering schools after him. In all, Samueli's given more than $150 million in charitable gifts in the past decade.

Nicholas also has donated to UCI and other causes, including a $10 million donation this year to St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, which his three kids attend.

-Andrew Simons

No. 5

ROLAND ARNALL

Owner, chairman,

Ameriquest Capital Corp.

Estimated worth: $1.2 billion

Americans refinancing mortgages is the best thing to happen to Roland Arnall.

In the past few years, Arnall's wealth has surged along with the value of Orange-based Ameriquest Capital Corp., which owns mortgage lender Ameriquest Mortgage Co.