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Sources -- Billionaire Robert Pera agrees to purchase Memphis Grizzlies - ESPN
After two consecutive trips to the playoffs and a return to respectability in the Western Conference, Michael Heisley has found a buyer to purchase the Memphis Grizzlies, according to sources with knowledge of the owner's plans.
Sources told ESPN.com that Heisley has an agreement in principle to sell the team to communications technology magnate Robert Pera, who at 34 has a spot on Forbes' list of the 10 youngest billionaries in the world.
The purchase price is in the $350 million range, sources said. A formal announcement to publicize the agreement between the parties is expected this week, possibly as soon as later Monday, with NBA Board of Governors approval then required before Pera can be officially installed as successor to Heisley, who recently turned 75.
Sources say that Pera intends to keep the team in Memphis. The Grizzlies' lease at the FedExForum, furthermore, ties the team to the city until the year 2021, with steep financial penalties attached to breaking that lease.
In 2006, Heisley agreed to sell his 70 percent controlling stake in the Grizzlies for a reported $360 million to a consortium headlined by Christian Laettner and fellow Duke alumnus Brian Davis. That deal infamously collapsed and was followed by the controversial trade of Pau Gasol to the Lakers in February 2007. That move initially earned Heisley widespread criticism before the Grizzlies' recent turnaround. But Pera is known as a basketball fanatic in business circles and is an unquestionably more serious bidder given his financial portfolio.
The 34-year-old Northern California native is a former engineer at Apple who left the computer giant at 25 to start his own company. Today Pera owns a reported 64 percent of the Ubiquiti Networks he founded and operates the company out of Taiwan as well as San Jose. Pera speaks Chinese and Japanese and is said to play basketball four to five times per week.
Sources told ESPN.com that Pera was spotted at a Grizzlies game in March touring the team's facilities and operations and Heisley acknowledged to the Memphis Commercial Appeal in March that there was another unnamed bidder for the team along with California billionaire Larry Ellison. Heisley was quoted as saying that he halted negotiations with Ellison because the deep-pocketed Oracle founder wanted to relocate the franchise.
"We're not even considering Ellison," Heisley told the newspaper. "This team cannot be moved."
Heisley has maintained for years that -- even though he never took the Grizzlies off the market -- he hasn't been actively shopping the team. The Grizzlies were widely bashed for the Gasol deal that ultimately helped the Los Angeles Lakers win championships in 2009 and 2010, but Heisley has hushed some of the criticism during the past two seasons by signing Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol to lucrative contracts amid longstanding skepticism about his willingness to spend.
The Grizzlies suffered a disappointing first-round exit this season after blowing a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 and then losing Game 7. But in 2011, after the first-round upset of 61-win San Antonio, Heisley told ESPN.com: "I think, quite frankly, that we're poised to be a real factor in this league going forward."
After this season's early exit, Heisley described the Grizzlies' achievements as "miraculous" given the loss of key reserve Darrell Arthur to a torn Achilles tendon during training camp and Randolph's 37-game absence because of a torn MCL in his right knee.
The Chicago-based Heisley bought the Grizzlies in 2000 when they were located in Vancouver and moved the franchise to Memphis starting with the 2001-02 season.
Sources told ESPN.com that Heisley has an agreement in principle to sell the team to communications technology magnate Robert Pera, who at 34 has a spot on Forbes' list of the 10 youngest billionaries in the world.
The purchase price is in the $350 million range, sources said. A formal announcement to publicize the agreement between the parties is expected this week, possibly as soon as later Monday, with NBA Board of Governors approval then required before Pera can be officially installed as successor to Heisley, who recently turned 75.
Sources say that Pera intends to keep the team in Memphis. The Grizzlies' lease at the FedExForum, furthermore, ties the team to the city until the year 2021, with steep financial penalties attached to breaking that lease.
In 2006, Heisley agreed to sell his 70 percent controlling stake in the Grizzlies for a reported $360 million to a consortium headlined by Christian Laettner and fellow Duke alumnus Brian Davis. That deal infamously collapsed and was followed by the controversial trade of Pau Gasol to the Lakers in February 2007. That move initially earned Heisley widespread criticism before the Grizzlies' recent turnaround. But Pera is known as a basketball fanatic in business circles and is an unquestionably more serious bidder given his financial portfolio.
The 34-year-old Northern California native is a former engineer at Apple who left the computer giant at 25 to start his own company. Today Pera owns a reported 64 percent of the Ubiquiti Networks he founded and operates the company out of Taiwan as well as San Jose. Pera speaks Chinese and Japanese and is said to play basketball four to five times per week.
Sources told ESPN.com that Pera was spotted at a Grizzlies game in March touring the team's facilities and operations and Heisley acknowledged to the Memphis Commercial Appeal in March that there was another unnamed bidder for the team along with California billionaire Larry Ellison. Heisley was quoted as saying that he halted negotiations with Ellison because the deep-pocketed Oracle founder wanted to relocate the franchise.
"We're not even considering Ellison," Heisley told the newspaper. "This team cannot be moved."
Heisley has maintained for years that -- even though he never took the Grizzlies off the market -- he hasn't been actively shopping the team. The Grizzlies were widely bashed for the Gasol deal that ultimately helped the Los Angeles Lakers win championships in 2009 and 2010, but Heisley has hushed some of the criticism during the past two seasons by signing Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol to lucrative contracts amid longstanding skepticism about his willingness to spend.
The Grizzlies suffered a disappointing first-round exit this season after blowing a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 and then losing Game 7. But in 2011, after the first-round upset of 61-win San Antonio, Heisley told ESPN.com: "I think, quite frankly, that we're poised to be a real factor in this league going forward."
After this season's early exit, Heisley described the Grizzlies' achievements as "miraculous" given the loss of key reserve Darrell Arthur to a torn Achilles tendon during training camp and Randolph's 37-game absence because of a torn MCL in his right knee.
The Chicago-based Heisley bought the Grizzlies in 2000 when they were located in Vancouver and moved the franchise to Memphis starting with the 2001-02 season.
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