Business Magnates & Tycoons Codexery

Alan Sugar

Last updated

He founded the consumer electronics company Amstrad in 1968 and later became the host of the BBC reality show The Apprentice.[1][2]

Last updated 2026-10-06 from the source article.

Key facts and history

Sugar set up Amstrad at age 21 with £100 of Post Office savings, initially selling car radio aerials from a van.[3] Sugar sold his remaining stake in Tottenham Hotspur in 2007 for £25 million.[1] In 2021, his fortune was estimated at £1.21 billion, ranking him as the 138th-richest person in the UK.[4] Amstrad became a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange in 1980, and four years later introduced the Amstrad CPC 464 home computer to the market.[5][6]

The Sinclair computer product line's rights were acquired by Amstrad in 1986.[7] Sugar disposed of his remaining Amstrad shares to BSkyB for £125 million in 2007.[1] From 1991 until 2001, Sugar served as both chairman and a part-owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.[1] On 20 July 2009, Sugar was granted a life peerage, taking the title Baron Sugar of Clapton.[8][9]

What the cited sources add

The BBC News report on the BSkyB deal notes that Amstrad's name is an acronym of Alan Michael Sugar Trading.[6] The Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that Sugar attempted to avoid a £186 million tax bill by becoming a non-resident, but failed because he is a member of the House of Lords.[10] That source also states the £186 million bill was due on a £390 million dividend paid in 2021.[10] A BBC article on Sugar's 2008 plane incident quotes him saying he had "as much chance of dying from food poisoning from the sandwich".[11]

A Guardian article recounts that Sugar, during his tenure as Tottenham Hotspur chairman, phoned BSkyB from a Premier League gathering and urged them to raise their offer to "blow out of the water".[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad deal", BBC News, 31 July 2007; "BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad deal", BBC News, 31 July 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kranish, "A fierce will to win pushed Donald Trump to the top", The Washington Post, 19 January 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Alan sugar bio", Virgin; "Alan sugar bio", Virgin (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Sunday Times – The Rich List", The Times (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: O'Grady, "The Big Question: 'The Apprentice' is a hit – but how good a businessman is Sir Alan Sugar?", The Independent, 10 May 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad deal", BBC News, 31 July 2007. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  7. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Amstrad PC 1512", old-computers.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sugar: I'm not joining government BBC; "Crown Office | the Gazette"; "Queen's Speech", 25 November 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Alan Sugar" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; "BBC One – The Apprentice – Lord Sugar", BBC; "Honorary Graduate Sir Alan Sugar", Brunel University; "Electoral Commission Register of Donors", The Electoral Commission; Treneman}}{{dead link, "Apprentice in the Lords: Baron Sugar of Clapton takes his seat", The Times, September 2024; ; "British Entrepreneurs Top 100: From Lord Sugar to Victoria Beckham, These Are the Most Influential Entrepreneurs in the UK", Richtopia, 29 August 2018; "Lord Sugar named most powerful person in Essex, but who else made the list?", ITV, 27 October 2017 (o en.wikipedia.org
  10. "Revealed: Sugar attempted to dodge £186m tax bill", The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (en-GB). facts only, no text reused. thebureauinvestigates.com
  11. "Alan Sugar 'survives plane crash'", BBC, 7 July 2008. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  12. Conn, "How football has kept the Murdoch empire afloat", The Guardian, 15 June 2012. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Alan Sugar (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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