Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Zell Becomes Starwood Hotels’ Second-Biggest Holder

 Billionaire real estate developer Sam Zell bought a 7.7 percent stake in Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. to become the company’s second-biggest shareholder, causing the shares to rise 4.8 percent.A unit of Zell’s Equity Group Investments LLC said today in a regulatory filing that it holds 14.8 million shares of White Plains, New York-based Starwood. Starwood owns the Sheraton and Westin hotel chains. Barclays Global Investors is the largest Starwood investor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Zell boosted his stake in hotels one year after selling Equity Office Properties Trust to Blackstone Group LP for a record $39 billion at the peak of the office market. His emergence as a buyer may signal the commercial real estate market has bottomed, said James Corl, chief investment officer for real estate securities at Cohen & Steers Inc.

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