David Murdock selling his Hawaiian island | Business

KANNAPOLIS - David Murdock, the former owner of Fieldcrest Cannon in Kannapolis and the developer of the North Carolina Research Campus, is selling a part of his own little piece of paradise, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million.

CBS News reports that Oracle Corp. (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison has agreed to buy 98 percent of Lanai from the island's current owner, Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said Wednesday.

The land's owner, Castle & Cooke Inc., filed a transfer application with the state's public utilities commission, which regulates utilities on the island that serve its two resorts.

The sale price for the property was not immediately clear. Lawyers for the seller redacted a copy of the sale agreement signed May 2, saying it includes confidential information that would competitively hurt Ellison and the seller if disclosed. The Maui News previously reported the asking price was between $500 million and $600 million.

Self-made billionaire David Murdock, who owns Castle & Cooke, which has offices in Kannapolis, said he would keep his home on Lanai and the right to build a wind farm, a controversial project that would place windmills on as many as 20 square miles of the island and deliver power to Oahu through an undersea cable.