Chapter 780 Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, was a football player before going into business.
But compared with Jones, who only played running back at the University of Arkansas, Richardson's sports career is more brilliant. As a wide receiver for the Baltimore Colts (the predecessor of the Indianapolis Colts), Richardson won the The 1959 NFL champion, in the final, he received a pass from the legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas to complete the touchdown, which was the brightest moment of his career.
However, after winning the championship, the future darling of the business world unexpectedly chose to retire bravely. With the championship bonus and his partner, he opened an American fast food restaurant named Hades. It developed rapidly at a similar speed, and eventually became the sixth largest catering giant in the United States today.
Before officially retiring from Hardees in 1995, Jerry Richardson returned to the field of football he loved. In 1993, he formed the Carolina Panthers in his hometown, North Carolina. Successfully became the 29th team in the NFL.
The market value of the Panthers used to be only 200 million US dollars, but now with the great success of the NFL league, the market value of the Panthers has more than quintupled. In the NFL value list released by Forbes last month, The Panthers have a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, ranking 19th among all NFL teams.
Of course, valuation is one aspect, and its actual sale value has to take into account other factors, such as the Panthers' home lease in Charlotte, North Carolina, which will expire in four seasons.
If the city of Charlotte is willing to help the team build a new stadium locally, then the team's acquirer will have to pay more money. Therefore, considering this way, the actual sale price of the Panthers is likely to be 1.8 billion. USD or so.
After hearing the news that Jerry Richardson was about to sell the team, the well-known American rapper Puff Daddy expressed his strong willingness to buy through Twitter. He directly wrote: "I want to buy the Panthers", He added: "The league doesn't have many African-American football owners, let's make history."
According to Forbes' data, Puff Daddy's worth is about 700 million U.S. dollars, and his annual income is about 100 million U.S. dollars. Of course, it is difficult for him to make a successful acquisition by himself. In terms of sex, it is definitely not as good as Yang Cheng and some Wall Street tycoons, so this competitor is not to be feared.
However, there are two billionaires who don't want to stand in the spotlight recently, which deserve Yang Cheng's attention.
Two relatively unknown bidders, Alan Kestenbaum and Ben Navarro, founder of Sherman Financial Group LLC, each offered market-equivalent US$1.6 billion in first-round bids, which is already quite high. Competitive. In addition, another acquaintance, David Taber, a hedge fund giant from Wall Street, gave a price of 1.5 billion US dollars. Although the price is slightly lower, it does not mean that he is not competitive.
Originally, there was also Michael Rubin, the executive chairman of the sportswear company Fanatics and billionaire Michael Rubin, who participated in the competition, but the first round of quotations had exceeded his expectations, so he had to announce his withdrawal from the competition.
Kestenbaum and Navarro may have less reputation than David Taber, and they may even be low-key and scary. Anyway, Yang Cheng has never heard of these two names, and the person sent to investigate has not returned yet, so he is still unclear How rich are the net worth of these two.
But one thing is, the NFL requires the controlling shareholder to personally buy at least 30% of the team's shares from the former shareholder.
Proving that they have the cash flow to run a team means that each bidder must provide close to $700 million in cash.
Having such liquid assets means that these people's business empires have a higher business value than this figure.
Fortunately, the people Ruiz sent to investigate were more powerful. When Yang Cheng got off the plane and got in the car, the relevant information had already been sent to his mailbox.
Kestenbaum is the co-founder of a Miami-based private equity fund that turns struggling metals companies into profits.
According to the data, in 2006, Kestenbaum bought the global special metal company for US$1 million. After as many as 11 mergers and acquisitions, the current market value has reached US$1.9 billion, and Kestenbaum has also Holds a $1.1 billion stake in a Canadian steel manufacturing company through a fund company.
As for the other Ben Navarro, who is 55 years old this year, his father was a college football coach. Sherman Financial Group holds a bank, has the ability to issue sub-prime credit cards, and also holds a credit rating agency. Its annual revenue reaches $3 billion, and its profit margin is not low.
The remaining Yang Cheng is the most valued and the strongest among the competitors. He is also David Taber, who is most familiar with the owners of the NFL teams. He is a minority shareholder of the Pittsburgh Steelers and has already passed the audit. People have no doubts about his wealth. Currently, David Taber is among the 50 richest people in the United States with an asset of more than 9 billion US dollars. His strength seems to be stronger than that of Yang Cheng.
Although David Taber's first-round bid was the lowest of all, no one would deny his strength. I am afraid that the price of 1.5 billion is just a test.
Ruiz came forward on behalf of Yang Cheng, and offered a moderate price in the first round - 1.56 billion US dollars, which was consistent with the valuation given by Forbes. It was also just a test. According to their analysis, 2 billion US dollars was the most Bottom line, now is far from the time for substantial price increases.
Bidding for sports clubs is different from bidding for other industries. Everything is on the bright side. Each season’s ticket revenue and TV advertising share are very clear, so there will be a bottom line for the premium, and there will be no unrestrained bidding. Money does not come from the wind, and no one is stupid enough to give a sky-high price.
Therefore, it is foreseeable that the price increase in the second round of bidding will not be too large, at most it will be limited to the level of tens of millions.
And Yang Cheng came back urgently to meet Roger Goodell, the chairman of the NFL. This is known as one of the richest CEOs in the United States. He is the one who turned the NFL into a cash cow and the largest sports league in the United States. , Created a capital market of tens of billions of dollars. For this reason, his average annual salary of less than 40 million U.S. dollars and the benefits of providing private jets for life seem to be worth the money.
On the way to the NFL headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, Yang Cheng was planning to meet Goodell for a while. He was going to talk about the possibility of the relocation of the Panthers, Charlotte's economic development and the mild and humid livable climate. Nothing can block the fact that it is too small. The combined population of the main city and the suburbs is less than 2 million. It is not suitable for sports clubs to survive. He also does not want to fly to Charlotte to watch the game in the future. trouble.
He is confident in convincing Roger Goodell, after all, everything is based on money!
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