With the recent news that Icelandair Group will buyout WOW Air, effectively creating an airline supergroup with a combined 80% market share of flights to and from Iceland, one of the more interesting details to come to light is that WOW Air was valued at 2.1 billion ISK, which translates to just over 17 million USD.
This might seem like a bargain basement price for a whole airline, and naturally raised the question: what else could you buy with that money instead of WOW Air?
Turns out: a whole lot, really. And some of these things seem like a much better deal—or at least a lot more fun—than owning an airline. This comprehensive list is sourced from these two citation-free articles on what one could buy with $30 million and $25 million respectively. We bear no responsibility for wild changes in exchange rates between the króna and the dollar.
1. Live on a cruise ship for over 73 years. If this woman really is living on a cruise ship at a cost of around $633 per day, you could drop $17 million and spend roughly the next 73 years and a half doing the same. Or you could gift an entire lifetime on a cruise ship to one lucky newborn.
2. Buy over half a million acres of the Moon. The website Lunarland.com claims to have the authority to sell real estate on the Moon, which they offer for the rock-bottom price of $30 per acre. With $17 million, you could have yourself a whooping 566,666 acres of Moon territory, roughly half the size of the US state of Rhode Island. Don’t let your dreams of a lunar kingdom die with you.
3. Hire Brother Love to attend 17 of your upcoming events. The artist and producer formerly known as Puff Daddy will attend your event for a cool million dollars. As such, you could conceivably hire him to come to your kid’s birthday party, your aunt’s baby shower, your office party, your open mic performance or whatever else you might dream up, to give your event that extra layer of style and pizazz.
4. 680 lions. Lions reportedly go for about $25,000 dollars each. “What the hell am I going to do with 680 lions?,” you ask? Hey, we’re not here to tell you how to live your life. They’re your lions now.
5. 52,500,000 bars of Prince Polo. With a wholesale price of about 40 ISK a piece, you could buy more than enough of Iceland’s favourite chocolate bar with $17 million. That’s enough to give every person living in South Korea their own Prince Polo bar and still have about half a million bars left over for yourself.
Naturally, the smart bet would be to think longterm—put that money into low-yield bonds, buy a huge chunk of land and start a commune, or donate it to the cause of your choice—but you could also spend it frivolously, without practically cornering the market on flights to and from Iceland. Not too shabby, really.
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