Forbes: Steve Ballmer is the richest team sports owner

Wealthy Gorilla

Steve Ballmer should have been in his usual courtside seat last night watching the Los Angeles Clippers host the Chicago Bulls at the Staples Center. Few fans, much less billionaire team owners, can match the enthusiasm of the former Microsoft CEO. The Clippers were an NBA title favorite this season after adding Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer.

Of course, sports arenas and stadiums remain dark around the globe because of the coronavirus shutdown. It could be months before the Clippers post their next victory. But off the court, Ballmer continues to rack up wins. With a $52.7 billion net worth, Ballmer unseats India’s Mukesh Ambani as the world’s richest sports team owner. He ranks as the 11th-richest person on the planet overall in Forbes’ annual tally of billionaires, which is headed by Jeff Bezos ($113 billion) for the third straight year.

Many global stock market indexes are down at least 20% over the past 12 months, but software giant Microsoft rose 30%, even accounting for a 18% haircut to the stock over the past two months. Microsoft’s gains, fueled by strong cloud computing results, added $11.5 billion to Ballmer’s net worth.

Ballmer has completely transformed the Clippers from a laughingstock to a model NBA franchise since he paid a then-record $2 billion for the team in 2014. The shoestring budget is long gone, front office legend Jerry West is on board, and the club is a desirable free-agent destination for the first time.

Last month, Ballmer reached a deal to buy the Forum in Inglewood, California, from Madison Square Garden Co. for $400 million. It should grease the wheels on Ballmer’s plan for a new Clippers arena in the city, ending MSG’s legal battle to stop a new competitor for live events.

There are 60 billionaire controlling owners of teams in major sports leagues around the world. They own a total of 80 teams (dozens of other billionaires own minority stakes in teams or own ones in lower leagues) and are collectively worth $379 billion. The group fared better than most people over the past 12 months, with their average net worth down $15 billion, or just 4%. However, the combined net worth is off $86 billion since the coronavirus started to roil global markets in mid-February.

While Ballmer was the biggest gainer in dollar terms, private equity titan Tom Gores led the field percentage-wise, with a 43% increase in his net worth, to $5.7 billion. Gores, who bought the Detroit Pistons in 2011, launched his firm Platinum Equity in 1995. In January, Platinum closed its largest buyout fund ever, with $10 billion in total capital commitments.

Ambani’s fortune plummeted $13 billion, to $36.8 billion, as shares of his oil and gas giant Reliance Industries sunk over energy demand concerns during a global recession. He still ranks as the second-richest team owner. Ambani owns cricket’s Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, which is on the verge of being canceled for the year as a result of the coronavirus.

Micky Arison, who is chairman of the world's largest cruise ship operator, Carnival Corp. CCL.U , lost 43% of his fortune, which now stands at $5.1 billion. The meltdown of the cruise business crushed the firm his father cofounded in 1972. Carnival shares are down 80% year-to-date.

François Pinault ($27 billion), Dietrich Mateschitz ($16.5 billion) and Hasso Plattner ($12.4 billion) join Ballmer and Ambani among the five richest owners.

The richest new addition to the ownership ranks is Alibaba BABA cofounder, Joseph Tsai, who is worth $10 billion, tied for ninth among team owners. He completed his purchase of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center from Mikhail Prokhorov in August for $3.3 billion.

Through his philanthropic arm, Ballmer Group, he pledged $25 million last month to organizations in Seattle, Los Angeles and southeastern Michigan helping out during the coronavirus pandemic, including $10 million to the University of Washington to help their efforts to develop a vaccine.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtba...richest-sports-team-owners-2020/#3877c22427b5

 

Wealthy gorilla should be Steve Ballmer's nickname. Here is a picture of Steve Ballmer with Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss:

 

Some billionaire fortunes grew despite coronavirus pandemic

Megan Henney
Fox BusinessApril 28, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic clobbers the U.S. economy, leaving nearly one in six workers without a job, some of the wealthiest Americans have actually seen their massive fortunes grow.

For example, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' net worth jumped by more than $28 billion from last year to a $146 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

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With millions of Americans stuck at home in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, consumers are increasingly relying on the e-commerce behemoth to deliver sundries to their house. Amazon shares were hovering close to $2,372 on Tuesday afternoon, which is up nearly 25 percent from the beginning of 2020, when they were around $1,898 per share.

“The wealth of America's top 10 billionaires is up 4 billion since the beginning of the year,” Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, tweeted Monday. “Quite a resilient tax base here.”

The crisis has brought the global economy to a near standstill and pushed more than 26 Americans onto the unemployment roll in just five weeks, erasing the entirety of the 22.78 million labor market gains since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

But Bezos, the richest person in the world, and his ultra-wealthy peers have continued to grow their wealth since last year.

Steve Ballmer's fortune grew by $5 billion. The former CEO of Microsoft is now worth $63.3 billion, compared to the same period last year. And the net worth of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison increased by $1.3 billion since last year, according to the Bloomberg index.

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The heirs to the Walmart fortune, Rob, Jim and Alice Walton, fortunes soared by a total of $6.42 billion. Similar to Amazon, the price of Walmart shares has swelled compared to the pre-coronavirus days. Shares of the discount retailer were close to $128.22 on Tuesday, which is up roughly 8 percent since the beginning of January.

Not every billionaire has made it out unscathed. The richest 10 individuals' wealth fell by about $25 billion, compared to a year ago.

Notable losses included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who lost $8.25 billion, decreasing his net worth to $105 billion; Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, whose fortune dropped by $15.4 billion to $73.9 billion; and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who lost $6.75 billion.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-fortunes-grew-despite-coronavirus-204151143.html