In October 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg paid more than $100 million for 750 acres of secluded land on the North Shore of Kauai , the oldest of the main Hawaiian islands. The purchase included two separate parcels: the Kahu’aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila’a Beach, a 393-acre property with bright white sand. Zuckerberg’s desire to sequester his family is understandable, given Silicon Valley ’s generally stifling atmosphere, and, more specifically, a recent lawsuit involving his home in Palo Alto The suit, filed by developer Mircea Voskerician in May 2014, centres around Zuckerberg’s 2013 purchase of four houses adjacent to his home in Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighbourhood. Voskerician had reportedly told Zuckerberg that he planned to build a large, 9,600-square-foot house on one of the lots behind his property. The home, Voskerician allegedly said, would have a direct view into the master bedroom shared by Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan . So Voskerician made Zuckerberg a deal: He would sell Zuckerberg the entire property at a discount if the Facebook billionaire would introduce the developer to his important Silicon Valley contacts. Zuckerberg paid Voskerician $1.7 million for the rights to the property, and then bought the lot from its owners for $4.8 million. But Voskerician says his interest in the property was worth far more than $1.7 million, and that he gave Zuckerberg a discount because of the business his referrals would potentially bring in.Apparently that never happened, hence the lawsuit. Divesh Makan, Zuckerberg’s financial adviser, later bought the three other homes around Zuckerberg’s house, further guaranteeing his privacy. The homes were purchased for $10.5 million, $14 million, and $14.5 million.Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has deployed similar tactics. In October 2013, she paid a reported $11.2 million for the Roller & Hapgood & Tinney funeral home, located just a few doors down from her home in Palo Alto. Though it’s still unclear what exactly Mayer plans to do with the property, the mortuary proved to be the perfect location for her annual Halloween party last year. The former funeral parlour was transformed into a haunted house for the day, much to the chagrin of a neighbour who complained on a local web site.Elon Musk has done a similar thing in Los Angeles. In November 2013, he paid $6.75 million for a teardown across the street from his $17 million Bel-Air mansion. In addition to his homes in Palo Alto and Kauai, Zuckerberg also has a house in San Francisco.It’s currently undergoing an extensive renovation, including $65,000 worth of renovation work on the kitchen and bathrooms, $750,000 for an addition to the rear and side of the house and $25,000 to make the fourth floor “habitable.” There’s an additional $720,000 for an office, media room, half bathroom, mudroom, laundry room, wine room and wet bar, in addition to a new second-floor half bathroom and remodel of the second, third and fourth floors. Each of the construction workers has signed an NDA, according to the New York Times