Michael Jordan Will Reportedly Sell Significant Shares of Charlotte Hornets
Written by SOURCE on September 14, 2019
It’s not Michael Jordan‘s style to cede even an inch of control. So, the news came as a bit of a shock that MJ is selling off a large chunk of his NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets.
According to reports from the Charlotte Observer, Jordan agreed to sell a significant amount of equity the team to two New York-based investors. Gabe Plotkin and Daniel Sundheim will purchase massive shares of the Hornets, while Jordan will still retain a majority of the team. The deal has not yet been approved by the NBA, but a league source told the paper that the process is already underway.
Jordan has been majority owner of the franchise since 2010, when he paid Bob Johnson $180 million to take over the team from him. Johnson, the owner of the network BET, paid the league $300 million for the team in 2004. Part of the reason that Jordan was able to get the team for a relative steal was an agreement to assume the debt of the team when he took over.
Sundheim and Plotkin’s share, as well as the price they paid for a piece of Charlotte, has not been shared. Both new stakeholders manage hedge funds with worths of over $3 billion. It’s unclear if the new names in the room will have any effect on Jordan’s penny-pinching style of running the Hornets, which recently cost the team a star in Kemba Walker. Neither of the fund managers have prior experience owning a team.
