Steve Ballmer Agrees To Buy Clippers For $2B

michael.pa2 said:
2 billion for a third rate NBA team? No wonder Microsoft is such a mess. I could see paying that for a top NFL team,but pro basketball will never have that kind of drawing power the way it's run today.
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It looks like all the bids that came in were well over a billion dollars. There was a lot of interest to buy this team from a lot of folks for top dollar. Why, I have no idea. But these opportunities are rare and it's not like you can go bargain hunting when the chance is there.
 
The team has become pretty good over the years. Interesting points on it going back to Seattle. That'd be interesting.
 
gigatexal said:
The team has become pretty good over the years. Interesting points on it going back to Seattle. That'd be interesting.
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They may as well just go somewhere else where they can be a first tier team, rather than remaining second tier in L.A. and living in the Lakers' shadow.
 
BrooksyX said:
I still don't think it is right that the NBA can just strip an owner of their team over an illegally recorded phone conversation (I really hope he sues that gold digger bimbo too). Anyways, I am really hoping that Balmer is a snake in the grass and plans on moving them to Seattle. Probably not but a guy can hope.
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The owners need a 3/4 vote to get any owner out. Right or wrong its what every nba owner agrees to when the become an nba owner. When comes to sterling this phone conversation isn't an isolated incident for the past 30 years he had the reputation of being a racist slumlord.

My initial reaction to ballmer is that this is a way to bring an NBA team back to seattle.
 
I read the summary, and the first thing I thought of was this:

Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.
 
BrooksyX said:
Am I the only one that feels like Sterling is being rewarded in this whole ordeal? He purchased the Clippers for $12.5 million, which adjusted for inflation is about $36 million. Sure he is loosing his team, but he is walking away with $2 Billion in cash! Not a bad investment at all.
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That is fucking win and I thought the same thing. At their level people are rewarded for the stupidest shit.

Balmer: Those n****s work for me now!!!

Sterling: Have fun sucka!!!
 
The Milwaukee Bucks sold for $550. I read that Balmer bid $650 but he wanted to move the team and was willing to pay the $200 million to Milwaukee so he could. The Bucks owner wanted someone that would keep the team in the city so he made that part of the agreement. I am sure Balmer had to agree to something similar before accepting his bid.
 
morgwon said:
I am sure Balmer had to agree to something similar before accepting his bid.
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Sounds like that is not true at all. The Clippers just renewed their lease with the Staples center through 2023, I imagine if Ballmer was to break the lease he would face a pretty hefty penalty. Being said, the guy just did agree to drop $2 billion.
 
Windows 8.1 logo print on backboard, LED screen banner flashing, all over stuff promotion.

Buy a beer for $12.00, You get 5% off on Any Windows 8/8.1 Pro coupon on cup.

Buy 3 Hot Dogs for $32, You get 15% off on Office365.

Baller slam dunk like MJ with tongue stick out, Shout !!! to Fans Buy Windows 8 !!!
 
Best thing would be if he moves them to seattle and calls them the Seattle Sterlnigs
 
the only winner here is sterling.

Racism couldn't be more profitable.

Adjusted for inflation, sterling bought the clippers for $35mil. Sold for $2000mil after 33 years.
That's $60mil per year gross income.
 
BrooksyX said:
He owns the Portland Trailblazers and he also owns a minority share of the Seattle
Sounders MLS team, which makes since considering they also play at Century Link Field with the SeaHawks.
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Unless he's sold, he also owns the Seahawks.
 
tonyftw said:
Not sure if it was intentional, but it was not close to being funny.
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Perhaps you're right about the intention it's just that it's not the first time I've seen that term used, and where I saw it used was on some of the, well, uglier sites let's just say. I do peruse those places when things like this Sterling (proper spelling) issue came up because there are those that believe of course he did nothing wrong. Thought it's hard for me to imagine that anyone that listened to everything he said can't see the huge problem for someone saying that stuff and owning an NBA team in a league where the workforce is dominated by some of the richest and most talented black men on Earth.
 
Spidey329 said:
Unless he's sold, he also owns the Seahawks.
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That is why I mentioned the Seahawks...

He wouldn't sell the blazers to buy a Seattle team, they are pretty valuable right now. And were ranked even higher than the Clippers before the recent activities.
 
tonyftw said:
And sterling is now suing the NBA for 1 billion...
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Well, since his wife had him declared mentally incompetent so she could sell the team without getting his approval I don't think that is likely ... a mentally incompetent person can't sue and the wife just got a big payday so there is no advantage for her to sue ;)
 
kbrickley said:
Well, since his wife had him declared mentally incompetent so she could sell the team without getting his approval I don't think that is likely ... a mentally incompetent person can't sue and the wife just got a big payday so there is no advantage for her to sue ;)
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My guess is that Steve Ballmer's legal team already ran through this scenario and figured, yeah, sure. Ultimately the owners control this situation, and I can't think of any scenario where one single league owner would defend Sterling over Ballmer. Except perhaps some owners might fear Ballmer's wealth. Ballmer essentially used his couch change to buy an NBA team on his own for four times the previous record. That's probably a little upsetting to some of the other owners.
 
a>
 
WorldExclusive said:
You can only image what i think of you.
Whatever it is, it's pretty accurate.
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I'm not that good at imaging. I know a couple of guys in radio who are good at it.

Although I would love to hear how you know that your image of an anonymous stranger is accurate. Cause that's totally not either creepy or megalomanical.
 
kbrickley said:
Well, since his wife had him declared mentally incompetent so she could sell the team without getting his approval I don't think that is likely ... a mentally incompetent person can't sue and the wife just got a big payday so there is no advantage for her to sue ;)
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I doubt he cares about the total, but his lawyer has already attacked the mental state he's in. If the lawyer didn't think he would pass the mental competency exam I doubt he would file the case.

The wife declared it, which may hold up in a private entity but not the court.

I don't like this guy, quite the opposite actually but he does have a case.
 
Trimlock said:
I don't like this guy, quite the opposite actually but he does have a case.
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The only case he has is if his wife doesn't have control. I really doubt that Ballmer and the other bidders would have put up record money if they we're expecting a lengthy legal battle. The team is Ballmer's now one way or anther because this is a guy that has enough resources to take on anyone. He's literally 10 Sterlings.
 
Hard to believe someone is willing to fork over 2 billion for a team comedians used to joke about people breaking into cars to leave Clippers tickets or radio stations not being able to give them away free because they were so bad and unloved.
Some people have too much money if they can buy and sell sports teams for billions of dollars....
 
heatlesssun said:
The only case he has is if his wife doesn't have control. I really doubt that Ballmer and the other bidders would have put up record money if they we're expecting a lengthy legal battle. The team is Ballmer's now one way or anther because this is a guy that has enough resources to take on anyone. He's literally 10 Sterlings.
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No he has no case against selling the team. That (gratefully) falls under a rule that he did sign into, allowing the NBA league to dictate terms of selling a team.

His case is more or less his banning. I doubt he cares, he will hold a grudge against the team being sold, sure, but if he goes to court it will be damages from a quick reaction to something that was illegally done.

To tell you the truth the NBA needs to get their nuts kicked in too. I wanted him banned, shit I think 99% of NBA watchers wanted him banned, 100% of san diego wanted him banned but they should of done a bit more then just wait for 2 days and ban him.
 
SGA76 said:
Hard to believe someone is willing to fork over 2 billion for a team comedians used to joke about people breaking into cars to leave Clippers tickets or radio stations not being able to give them away free because they were so bad and unloved.
Some people have too much money if they can buy and sell sports teams for billions of dollars....
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Any pro team is worth billions. The small market teams actually make a killing on profit, unless you poorly manage the team (dodgers) and go bankrupt with out checking your bank statement at least once a century...

Either way, its also prestige. The Clippers were less then 20% of Sterling's worth, a sting but nothing that will set him back. Its all about owning something that gets as much notoriety as a Pro Athlete team. The Clippers are going to be like 5% - 10% of Ballmer's worth.
 
Buying a sports team is not a purchase in the conventional consumer sense. One would essentially just be reallocating their wealth, any losses would be in opportunity cost and/or if the team losses value over your term of ownership.

Also with how the NBA (and NFL and NHL now) are actually run it is very hard now to actually lose money as owner in terms of operations. This is because they have essentially a fixed cost now for their actual product (the athletes) and as well as having tax payers shoulder the costs for infrastructure (stadium/arenas).

Trimlock said:
No he has no case against selling the team. That (gratefully) falls under a rule that he did sign into, allowing the NBA league to dictate terms of selling a team.

His case is more or less his banning. I doubt he cares, he will hold a grudge against the team being sold, sure, but if he goes to court it will be damages from a quick reaction to something that was illegally done.

To tell you the truth the NBA needs to get their nuts kicked in too. I wanted him banned, shit I think 99% of NBA watchers wanted him banned, 100% of san diego wanted him banned but they should of done a bit more then just wait for 2 days and ban him.
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He is banned (as well as fined). The meeting was regarding ownership termination and to force the sale of the team which (at this juncture) became unnecessary. Also for the NBA the speculation is that this also avoids the potentially problematic issue of actually revealing what the (now hypothetical) vote tally would be.

In terms of challenging the ban itself I'm not seeing how that would lead anywhere. It is well established a private business has the right to refuse service to an individual.

His legal challenge is actually regarding the termination of ownership.

Trimlock said:
Either way, its also prestige. The Clippers were less then 20% of Sterling's worth, a sting but nothing that will set him back. Its all about owning something that gets as much notoriety as a Pro Athlete team. The Clippers are going to be like 5% - 10% of Ballmer's worth.
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There is a monetary issue regarding the capital gains tax from a sale (in the hundreds of millions of dollars) for the Sterlings.
 
DraginDime said:
Back when they first were talking about forcing the sale of the LA Clippers, everyone was estimating the teams value at $700m........ why the hell would anyone throw a $2B bid in? Was the teams value just underestimated that bad?
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It's because he's paying the Sterlings with Surface RT tablets. Ballmer's just glad he finally found somebody dumb enough to buy them.
 
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