Halsey Minor Returns, Bearing Bitcoins

Few Internet entrepreneurs have risen as high and fallen as low as Halsey Minor. The founder of early Web news network CNET, sold to CBS in 2008 for $1.8 billion, Minor also invested early in companies such as Salesforce.com and Grand Central, which later became Google Voice. With a fortune once estimated at $400 million, he owned four homes around the country, including a former museum near Colonial Williamsburg, Va., and a neoclassical mansion in San Francisco’s tony Pacific Heights.

A history of lavish spending and impetuous management caught up with him. Minor took out large loans for such extravagances as hotels, thoroughbred horses, and an art collection that included paintings by Richard Prince and a sculpture by Jeff Koons. When the banks supplying his capital got into trouble during the financial crisis, so did he. Minor declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Los Angeles last year, reporting assets of $50 million and $100 million in debt.