Photos: Former SAP CEO buys $22 million Silicon Valley estate
One-eyed corporate mogul William “Bill” McDermott achieved tech legend status as SAP’s longtime CEO. During his near-decade as head (or co-head) honcho at the German tech firm, he transformed the struggling software giant into one of the world’s most highly-valued companies.
By James McClain | Variety
One-eyed corporate mogul William “Bill” McDermott achieved tech legend status as SAP’s longtime CEO. During his near-decade as head (or co-head) honcho at the German tech firm, he transformed the struggling software giant into one of the world’s most highly-valued companies.
Last month, in a somewhat surprising move, McDermott left SAP and quickly pivoted to take the reins as chief executive of ServiceNow, a publicly-traded enterprise software provider.
Since ServiceNow is based in California’s tech-choked Silicon Valley, the formerly Palm Beach, Florida-based McDermott and his longtime wife Julie have selected a new West Coast outpost in the form of an elegant Atherton, Calif. mansion. Records show the couple forked out $21.75 million for the one-acre property, which and sits on one of the tony town’s most prestigious streets.
As has previously been discussed, this particular house was sold by another tech heavyweight — David Sacks, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent angel investors. Sacks was the founding COO of PayPal and later founded Yammer, which was gobbled up by Microsoft in 2012 for a whopping $1.2 billion. And he was an early better on a multitude of other tech unicorns: Uber, Facebook, SpaceX, Airbnb and Bird among them.
Built new in 2015 by local property specialists at the Wise Building Company, the East Coast traditional-style manse is painted a trendy shade of dark grey — with white accents — and offers three full floors of living space. Gated and camera-secured for privacy, there’s a blacktopped motorcourt with space for a dozen vehicles and a two-car garage connected to the main house by a breezeway.
The front door opens into an impressive double-height foyer with a shimmering crystal chandelier, paneled walls and hardwood floors stained a deep chocolate brown. Both the formal living and dining rooms have marble-surround fireplaces, the former also equipped with mint green walls and the latter French doors opening to an outdoor terrace.
A chef’s kitchen has eat-in bar seating, a marble-topped island and high-end Wolf and SubZero appliances. Naturally there’s also a large butler’s pantry and plenty of storage space for fine china, while other main floor spaces include a large office, and a library with walls painted a pale mauve pink.
The upstairs master suite features a bedroom with vaulted ceiling, marble bath with dual vanities and soaking tub, and his/hers walk-in closets with custom built-ins. There are at least four additional bedroom suites, plus a home theater, wet bar and large gym/bonus room.
Out back, the park-like flat grounds are ringed by mature oaks and include a spacious lawn with plenty of room for children or dogs to romp, an elaborate children’s playset, stone patios for alfresco dining, and a one-bedroom guesthouse that’s basically a mini-replica of the main residence. There are also two brick outdoor fireplaces, one attached to the main house and the other to the guesthouse’s covered loggia.
The city of Atherton, though relatively small — fewer than 7,000 residents — is famously loaded with other mega-rich power players. Some of McDermott’s new neighbors include Steph Curry, Meg Whitman, Eric Schmidt, Charles Schwab, Jan Koum and Sergey Brin.
And back in 2012, McDermott paid country singer Alan Jackson $10.4 million for an oceanfront house on Florida’s prestigious Jupiter Island. Early last year, that Mediterranean-style villa popped up for sale, eventually transferring in April 2018 for $13.2 million to New York real estate mogul Robert Moser, though McDermott still maintains real estate ties to the Palm Beach area. He also maintains a “modern villa” in Heidelberg, Germany, near SAP’s corporate headquarters, though it seems safe to assume that he’ll soon unload that place.
Courtney Charney at Parc Agency Corporation held the listing; the DeLeon team at DeLeon Realty repped McDermott.