Private equity billionaire David Rubenstein’s purchase of the Orioles is expected to be discussed at Major League Baseball’s owners conference in Florida next week, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the deal. The deal is expected to be approved sooner than the sale of the team. Outlook.
Such approval typically takes several months, as it involves vetting the buyer’s background and financing. An agreement for Mr. Rubenstein to become a controlling shareholder is expected to move more quickly than for many other companies, in part because Mr. Rubenstein, a Baltimore native and philanthropist and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, is particularly well-known. officials said. Mr. Rubenstein’s proposal also has the advantage of being relatively simple, one of the people said. They spoke to The Baltimore Sun on condition of anonymity because the deal is private and still pending.
time Kansas City Royals sold in 2019, Less than three months passed from the announcement of the sale agreement to official approval from MLB owners. Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen’s 2020 deal to buy the New York Mets was approved in about seven weeks, but he is a minority shareholder and has made previous unsuccessful attempts to buy the team. Because of this, he was previously examined by MLB.
Rubenstein’s timeline is estimated to be less than six weeks, but sources warn it could take longer.
The team’s spring training will begin when pitchers and catchers arrive in Sarasota, Florida, on February 14th. After a breakthrough in 2023, the Orioles are expected to compete for the American League East title again, and they acquired former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes in a trade Thursday night.
Rubenstein’s agreement to buy the team from the Angelos family and take over as controlling owner values the franchise and its assets at $1.725 billion. The family has owned the club since 94-year-old patriarch Peter Angelos, who is currently in bed, bought it for $173 million in 1993.
One outstanding question about the sale is what will happen to the dozen or so investors who have held minority stakes in Angelos Group for years. That list also includes Pam Shriver, a Baltimore-born tennis star now a Los Angeles-based broadcaster and coach who has been a member of the team for 31 years.
“My interest in my hometown team remains the same no matter who the principal owners are,” she told The Sun on Thursday.
But MLB approval is still pending, and Schreiber, 61, said he doesn’t know what the future holds.
MLB’s Ownership Committee, a nine-person committee chaired by Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton, will be briefed on the agreement at a meeting starting Tuesday in Orlando.
Typically, the committee prepares a report and the sale is voted on by the executive council, which is made up of eight owners. John Angelos, the Orioles’ chairman and CEO and MLB’s official “control person,” is not a member of the council, which is chaired by Commissioner Rob Manfred.
If it passes the council, the sale would go to all 30 owners, with approval from at least 23 of them required. Approval by a larger group can be done in a meeting or video call and does not need to occur at the same time as a regularly scheduled meeting, such as a meeting held Tuesday through Thursday.
Matt Button | Record Staff / Baltimore Sun
Cal Ripken Jr. (left) and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred speak on the field during the 2014 Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen.
Rubenstein, 74, and MLB are declining to comment on the details of his acquisition until the agreement is approved. A spokesperson for Angelos did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Rubenstein Group will initially acquire a 40% stake in the Orioles and agree to buy out the remaining stake after Peter Angelos’ death, according to one of the people involved and a third party with direct knowledge of the agreement. It’s planned.
In addition to Mr. Rubenstein, the growing group includes three New York-based individuals from Ares Management. Its co-founder, Michael Arrogetti, and Ares Credit Group co-chairs, Mitchell Goldstein and Michael Smith. Partners include Orioles icon Cal Ripken Jr., as well as Michel Cann, owner of the Washington Spirit of the National Women’s Soccer League and a women’s soccer club in France. Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore and president of the University of Baltimore, is also part of the group. So is Basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill. His father, Calvin, once worked in the Orioles’ front office and played football with Schmoke at Yale University.
New York-based billionaire Michael Bloomberg is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former New York City mayor who is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 10th richest person in America with a net worth of $96 billion. The group is also in a group with many celebrities. Mr. Bloomberg, now based in New York, attended Johns Hopkins University and has since donated more than $3.5 billion to his alma mater, according to the university.
“Through my philanthropy, I have long supported Baltimore and Johns Hopkins, the university that brought me to Baltimore and gave me so much,” Bloomberg said through a spokesperson. “This is another way to help the city continue to revitalize. I know David.” [Rubenstein ] I share my commitment to that mission. ”
In addition to Mr. Shriver, Mr. Angelos’ long-standing group also includes the estate of prolific novelist Tom Clancy, who died in 2013. His ex-wife Wanda King is also a minority owner.
David Bernstein, 89, former co-founder of Tax Free International, has been a co-owner since Angelos took over. He still lives in the Baltimore area and is awaiting official announcement regarding the sale. “Nothing has changed” from an ownership standpoint, he said Thursday.
The same goes for the Marion I and Henry J. Knott Foundation. Henry Knott was one of the original investors along with Angelos. Although he wasn’t a baseball expert (“I know about baseball as much as you know about going to the moon,” he told the Sun in 1993), Oriole Park I have fond memories of jumping over the fence during baseball games. It was on 29th Street. He died in 1995 at the age of 89, and now he and his wife’s foundation own part of the team.
“We’re just going to wait and see what happens” about the foundation’s ownership, said Kelly Kilduff, the foundation’s executive director.
Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun
Tom Clancy and Peter Angelos investigate Oriole Park after purchasing the Orioles.
Minority owners are typically required to sell their shares when a team is sold, said Nellie Drew, a sports law professor at the University at Buffalo. Contracts often contain clauses directing the sale unless the new ownership group allows them to remain on board.
“You never want to force someone into a position where they have to do business with someone they didn’t choose,” Drew says.
Fans, like many when Peter Angelos purchased the team in 1993, are pleased with the prospect of a new owner in Rubenstein. That makes sense, Drew said, noting that when teams change owners, there is often a “honeymoon period with the fans.”
After a relatively quiet offseason, the Orioles made a splash Thursday with the addition of Barnes. The 29-year-old has been an All-Star pitcher each of the past three seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers and will quickly become Baltimore’s ace. Asked about the trade, which occurred shortly after the ownership change was made public, during a press conference Friday, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said, “The news is consistent with the timing. “And that’s not part of the trade.” ”
Elias said he worked closely with Angelos, who remains the team’s control person for now, on signing Barnes.
Elias said the trade dates back to December and has been “preparing for many months.”
There was no obvious public indication in January that the Angelos family was on the verge of selling the Orioles.
But the road had been in place for a long time. Twenty months before talk of the sale became public on Tuesday, a family lawsuit over Peter Angelos’ assets had been settled, but legal documents revealed that his family planned to sell the club after his death. It was revealed.
Angelos has been in poor health for years, and his wife Georgia is legally authorized to make decisions for him. A 2022 document said she hired Goldman Sachs and Jones Day to provide investment banking and legal services in connection with a potential future sale. The two companies are currently advising the Orioles on the deal.
