Jordan's $2B Hornets Flip
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A story about how Michael Jordan bought the Charlotte Hornets from a desperate seller and is now selling it for billions.
"Bob Johnson, who started BET and sold it to Viacom for $3B, owned the Charlotte Bobcats. After his divorce where his wife got $400M (and later married the judge), he was stretched for cash. He had too much debt, was losing $20-25M a year operating the team, and was about to lose his entire empire.
MJ was already working for the team when Bob needed to sell. The team was worth around $350M, but Bob couldn't find a buyer because they were the worst team and losing money. Jordan came to him and said 'I'll buy it for $275M valuation, but I'll only put down $25M in cash. I'll assume all the debts of the team to relieve the pressure on you.'
Now Jordan is selling the team for $2B to Gabe Plotkin, the guy who ran Melvin Capital that got blown up by the GameStop thing. There's a rumor Jordan is selling because he had given Melvin Capital hundreds of millions to invest and they lost it, so he needs the cash. But either way, Jordan turned $25M into $2B by buying this team when the seller was desperate."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.