Posted on 04/01/2010 9:15:34 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
The nation’s first African-American billionaire, Robert Johnson, is enduring a cash crush so severe, reports Peter Lauria, that he had to hock his NBA franchise to Michael Jordan for a song..
When the nation’s first African-American billionaire, Robert Johnson, bought the expansion Charlotte Bobcats NBA team in 2002, his highest-profile move was hiring the most famous athlete in the world, Michael Jordan, to run the team. In a twist thick with irony, the employee has now become the savior: Two weeks ago, Jordan bought the team for pennies on the dollar.
The sale underscores Johnson’s dire financial situation. Four sources with firsthand knowledge tell The Daily Beast that the 63-year-old founder of BET desperately needs cash. The Bobcats sale was precipitated by a need for liquidity to fund his other investment obligations and avoid becoming insolvent, according to business associates of Johnson’s and sources involved in the sale.
Indeed, three sources specifically involved with the team sale said Johnson was eager to ink a deal before an upcoming interest payment on the team’s $40 million in bank debt, so he could save the cash, even though it was only for a few million dollars. That, combined with the deal’s terms, suggests that Johnson is dangerously close to being illiquid. Though reports said he initially wanted between $325 million and $350 million for the Bobcats, the NBA valued the deal at $275 million. But that includes the assumption of debt and other liabilities taken on by Jordan. His Airness only paid Johnson a fire-sale price of $25 million cash in the deal, these three sources say
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Don’t worry. Jordan will gamble the team away on a hand of poker in the next few months.
Oh, he’ll probably manage to drop the losing investment junk by hook or by crook or by a wink at Obama, and live a fairly comfortable mere millionaire life for the rest of his years. I don’t see a cardboard box in his future (at least until he dies).
...I live in North Carolina and the Bobcats are a losing proposition...they’ll skin Michael Jordan out of his money too...remember him with the Wizards?...he was a bringer of confusion rather than harmony...that’s why he got the boot...he doesn’t like to put in the day to day attention to detail that it takes to run a business...right now he’s looking for pardners to come in with him on the Bobcats deal...and they’re not coming forward.
....Bob Johnson made his dough off booty-shaking videos and black comedians that made fun of whites....he was always a cheap shot kind of businessman....he’ll be broke in due time.
I can guarantee that the founder of BET is not a Repub or a conservative.
What is “BET?” (Thanks in advance.)
It is the cable channel "Black Entertainment Television". Johnson founded this as well as a number of "black-oriented" magazines (I think Jet, for one). BET was sold by Johnson to Viacom (owners of CBS & Paramount) several years ago (could have been a decade ago, I can't remember precisely) for something north of a billion dollars.
Robert Johnson sings the blues? I have that album!
>> I don’t see a cardboard box in his future (at least until he dies).
I have learned to never let go of my dreams. ;-)
If it comes true and you gloat, remember God may see and turn His anger away from the one being gloated at.
>> If it comes true and you gloat, remember God may see and turn His anger away from the one being gloated at.
True, that.
Maybe I better not gloat.
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