As of February 2023, Zell had an estimated net worth of US $5.3 billion, according to Forbes.
After graduation, Zell worked as a lawyer for one week before deciding that the legal profession was not for him. *
In 2006, the Blackstone Group announced the purchase of Equity Office for $36 billion, which was the largest leveraged buyout in history at the time. Blackstone then sold many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts. By early 2009, most of the properties sold were "under water" (worth less than the mortgage).
Equity Lifestyle Properties owns more than 400 trailer parks or mobilehome parks, and has been heavily criticized for its treatment of tenants.
Zell affiliates owned the Schwinn Bicycle Company, the drugstore Revco, department store chain Broadway Stores, energy company Santa Fe Energy Resources, and mattress company Sealy. In 1985, Zell took over Itel Corporation.
In January 2008, Zell bought a controlling share in the Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers.
Less than a year after Zell bought the company, it tipped into bankruptcy, listing $7.6 billion in assets against a debt of $13 billion, making it the largest bankruptcy in the history of the American media industry. More than 4,200 people have lost jobs since the purchase, while resources for the Tribune newspapers and television stations have been slashed."
Zell was known for using "salty" language in the newsroom. In February 2008, the website LA Observed reprinted an internal memo that said:
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*This tidbit is for Rotifer
