Wow...Dolan is smiling...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/... Former Microsoft MSFT +0.82% CEO Steve Ballmer has offered $1.8 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers, according to a person familiar with Ballmer’s interest in the NBA team. Ballmer, who retired as Microsoft’s CEO four months ago, has a net worth of $20 billion. Another source, with intimate knowledge of the bids that Rochelle Sterling has thus far received for the basketball team, said offers have come in between $1 billion and $2 billion and that the Ballmer package is strong.
It is still early in the bidding process for the Clippers and it is quite possible that the price could go higher, especially if interested parties join forces to buy the team. Still, I must tip my hat to Bill Simmons, who predicted at the end of April that the basketball team would fetch $1.75 billion. Donald Sterling bought the Clippers in June, 1981 for $12.5 million. NBA owners are voting June 3 to force he and his wife Rochelle to sell the team due to racist comments made by him in private that were taped and subsequently made public.
Rochelle Sterling, who has taken the lead in running the sale of the team, is employing a strategy similar to the one used by Frank McCourt when he sold the Los Angeles Dodgers two years ago to maximize the sale price: conduct a blind auction that initially is devoid of interference from the league. Guggenheim Baseball Management paid $2 billion for the Dodgers and their stadium, $500 million more than the next highest bidder, hedge fund titan Steve Cohen, was willing to pay.
The sale of the Clippers will illustrate that even an NBA team devoid of a title can be a great long term investment in the right market. Should the Clippers sell for $1.8 billion, it would be the second-highest price ever paid for a U.S. sports team and would work out to a 16.3% compound annual rate of return. Over the same period the S&P 500 posted an annual return (including reinvested dividends) of 11.3%. The stellar 16.3% return would still lag the 26% annualized return McCourt generated from owning the Dodgers, alas.
But the sale process is not over and don’t be shocked if the final price comes in at over $2 billion.
Move over Dr. Dre, Diddy, Money Mayweather, Oprah, Rick Ross...Steve Baller has spoken...1.8 bio large...Deal with that...
SI reporting he won the bid.
unbelievable.. i can't even beging to imagine 1.8billion lol. i can't even imagine 18k lol
Where is Doctor Evil when we need him?
How much MSFT stock does he have? Probably barely put a dent in his shares. Although I see on ESPN he is part of a group so it's not all his coin.
Unfortunately I don't think he was the best CEO and doubt he will do better at owning a team but since it's his cash who knows.
Wasn't the Bucks just sold for 550 mio and the Kings 535 mio...A steal...
2 billion dollars.
Boy the Bucks only got 500mm they shouldve waited.
If the Clippers are worth 2B are the Knicks worth 4 B?
BRIGGS wrote:2 billion dollars.
Boy the Bucks only got 500mm they shouldve waited.
If the Clippers are worth 2B are the Knicks worth 4 B?
The Bucks were never going to sell for as much as the Clippers. You have to take into account how good a team is, location, and a whole bunch of other factors; a title contender in LA is always going to be worth a shitton more than a the worst team in the league that plays in Milwaukee.
In a vacuum I would say no, we're probably not worth twice what the Clippers are. But, Dolan's not looking to sell so any prospective buyer would have to come in with a larger number than what the team is worth for Dolan to even consider it. So, $4B is probably a good starting point.
Wasn't Ballmer part of the last ditch effort to buy the Sonics and keep them in Seattle?
What if he's planning on moving the Clips to Seattle? Just saying! That would completely excise the ghost of Sterling and move them out from under the Lakers shadow forever.
Actually makes me kind of sick to think that they drove the price up for this bastard to take advantage of. SMDH
H1AND1 wrote:Wasn't Ballmer part of the last ditch effort to buy the Sonics and keep them in Seattle?What if he's planning on moving the Clips to Seattle? Just saying! That would completely excise the ghost of Sterling and move them out from under the Lakers shadow forever.
they're worth $2B because they're in LA. In Seattle, they're probably worth half or less, easy.
BRIGGS wrote:2 billion dollars.
Boy the Bucks only got 500mm they shouldve waited.
If the Clippers are worth 2B are the Knicks worth 4 B?
I don't think double - but when you consider they own the garden, their own cable tv station, toss in the rangers who are heading to the stanley cup - I could see the number easy in that neighborhood.
Hope Dolan thinks to cash out!
Turns out that Shelley Sterling had her husband declared mentally incompetent so it looks like Donald is legally out of the loop in all of this.
franco12 wrote:H1AND1 wrote:Wasn't Ballmer part of the last ditch effort to buy the Sonics and keep them in Seattle?What if he's planning on moving the Clips to Seattle? Just saying! That would completely excise the ghost of Sterling and move them out from under the Lakers shadow forever.
they're worth $2B because they're in LA. In Seattle, they're probably worth half or less, easy.
Well, yeah, but if your plan is to hold long term then it's not a bad assumption that even a Seattle team could be worth 2 billion in a decade or so. Teams in smaller markets have sold for 500 mil and up.
Anyway, I know it's unlikely I was mostly making a wild prediction!
Allanfan20 wrote:Is this official now?
Have to see what Donald Sterling does next. Might have his lawyers try to block it, file an injunction, IDK.
They are reporting it in ESPN. Done deal.
