Bond began his career as a
signwriter under the name 'Nu-Signs' after terminating his apprenticeship 18 months before it was due to end. leading the business to legal success in the landmark
constitutional law case of
Castlemaine Tooheys Ltd v South Australia, and
G. Heileman Brewing Company in
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US),
gold mining,
television, and
airships. Australia's first private university,
Bond University, was founded by the Bond Corporation in 1987. He purchased
QTQ-9 Brisbane and settled an outstanding
defamation dispute the station had with the
Queensland premier,
Joh Bjelke-Petersen by paying out
A$400,000. He said in a television interview several years later that he paid because "Sir Joh left no doubt that if we were going to continue to do business successfully in Queensland then he expected the matter to be resolved". In 1987, Bond purchased
Vincent van Gogh's renowned painting
Irises for $54 million—the highest price ever paid for a single painting at the time. However, the purchase was funded by a substantial loan from the auctioneer
Sotheby's, which Bond failed to repay. The transaction was criticised by art dealers as possibly a manipulated sale designed to artificially inflate values generally (which it seems to have done). The painting was subsequently re-sold in 1990 to the
J. Paul Getty Museum in
Los Angeles. That same year, Bond also organised the establishment of the Bond Centre in
Hong Kong, which was located in a twin tower skyscraper complex. The property was later bought by the
Lippo Group of Indonesia, and is now known as the
Lippo Centre.
The America's Cup Bond became a public hero in his adopted country when he bankrolled challenges for the
America's Cup, which resulted in his selection in 1978 as
Australian of the Year (awarded jointly with
Galarrwuy Yunupingu). His
Australia II syndicate won the
1983 America's Cup, which had been held by the New York Yacht Club since 1851, thus breaking the longest winning streak in the history of sport. That victory, widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest international sporting achievements, resulted in Bond's receipt of the
Order of Australia, in the grade of Officer.
Purchasing the Nine Network In 1987, Bond paid $1 billion to purchase the Australia-wide Channel Nine television network from
Kerry Packer's
PBL. In a 2003 interview with
Andrew Denton, Bond described the negotiations as follows: ...when we first sat down, we said, 'We're either going to sell our stations to you for $400 million, or you're going to sell your stations to us.' And [Kerry Packer] said, 'Well, I don't really want to sell my stations.' And I said, 'Oh, is that right?' So, anyway, after much discussion, Kerry thumped the table and said, 'Listen, if you can pay me $1 billion, I'll sell them to you, otherwise bugger off'. ... [T]hen I rang the
National Australia Bank. I said, 'Look, I'm in discussions here to buy these television stations. Kerry will sell to me, and what I want to do is put our stations together and then, with
Sky Channel, I'm going to float it off as a separate entity and raise the capital to pay for it... [Packer] said $1 billion [was his asking price], but I think I'll get it for $800 million.' ... [The bank manager] duly rang back and said yes. I said, 'Thank God. I'll go and have some further negotiations with Kerry,' which I did. And true to his word, he never budged one penny off it. So I settled the deal with $800 million and a $200 million note. So he put his own $200 million in. So I had $1 billion. And we put our other two stations up as collateral, which were worth probably $400 million. In fact, the agreed price was $1.05 billion. Packer took $800 million in cash and $250 million in subordinated debt in Bond Media. When Bond went bankrupt, Packer was able to turn the debt into a 37% equity in Bond Media, which now included Channel 9 in Brisbane, and was worth about $500 million. It was valued at $1 billion, but had $500 million in debt on the books. Packer was quoted as saying, "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine". ==Bankruptcy and conviction for fraud==