According to The Athletic, the prospective Timberwolves ownership group has reached an agreement with former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to become an investor, a significant move as the group tries to wrestle the franchise away from current owner, Glen Taylor. Rodriguez and Lore own 40% of the Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
RESTORING THE GLORY
Lore and Rodriguez are in arbitration against Taylor to settle a dispute around $600 million of the deal, which would give them an additional 40% stake in the team. This part of the money is not related to Bloomberg’s investment. The portion of the money from Bloomberg, the three-term NYC mayor from 2002-13, would allow the group to buy out Taylor immediately of the remaining 20% stake of the franchise, which has a deadline of March 2025.
Via The Athletic:
Adding Bloomberg to the group would allow them to go forward immediately with a final $300-plus million investment to buy out Taylor rather than waiting until the end of next season, league sources said, if things break in their favor.
While Bloomberg is a big name and a considerable financial partner, he is in for only a portion of that $300 million. The rest comes from the existing group Lore and Rodriguez have assembled, which includes themselves, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and others.
Bloomberg is worth $106.2 billion, according to Forbes, which says he’s the 12th-richest person in the world.
The 82-year-old Taylor announced March 28 that he was exercising his right to pull out of the last part of the unusually structured deal because Lore and Rodriguez did not meet the deadline for the final payment — about $600 million — that was to transfer an additional 40% stake of the club.
Lore and Rodriguez vehemently disagreed. The pair said they were waiting on NBA approval for the paperwork they’d submitted by the March 27 deadline that entitled them, per the contract, to a 90-day extension. They accused Taylor of simply having seller’s remorse because the value of the Timberwolves has increased since the agreement, mirroring a continued spike in NBA revenues.
Lore, an e-commerce entrepreneur, and Rodriguez, the former Major League Baseball star, struck an agreement with Taylor in 2021 to buy the Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx WNBA franchise for $1.5 billion. Taylor, who bought the team in 1994 for $88 million, set up the deal in phases so he could serve as a mentor of sorts to the newcomers as they learned the league, the organization and the Twin Cities community. Lore and Rodriguez together own 36% of the club.
