Laurene Powell Jobs to buy stake in NBA's Wizards, NHL's Capitals
Billionaire executive Laurene Powell Jobs has agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in Ted Leonsis' Monumental Sports & Entertainment that would grant her partial ownership of several professional sports franchises.
A spokeswoman for Monumental confirmed to The Associated Press that there is an agreement in place with Powell Jobs pending approval from the NBA and NHL. Monumental owns the Washington Wizards, Capitals, Mystics and the Arena Football League's Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade.
Powell Jobs, widow of former Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, is a philanthropist and entrepreneur and president of the Emerson Collective. A spokeswoman for Powell Jobs declined comment.
Powell Jobs, 53, has a net worth of approximately $20 billion, the Washington Post reported. Aside from her holdings in Apple, Powell Jobs owns a small stake in the Walt Disney Company. Her bid to purchase a stake in Monumental comes just weeks after the NBA’s Houston Rockets franchise sold for a record $2.2 billion.
Forbes estimates the Wizards’ value at $1.36 billion and the Capitals’ value at $575 million.
The Monumental spokeswoman said in a statement, "Through her work at Emerson Collective, Laurene has been a longtime leader in areas of education, immigration, social justice and the environment, and has demonstrated that she shares Ted Leonsis's belief in a double bottom line philosophy: that the companies that do best are those that do good in their communities."
She'll have the second-largest stake in the 19-person Monumental group, behind only Leonsis, who remains majority owner, chairman and CEO. She joins the Los Angeles' Jeanie Buss, Denver's Ann Walton Kroenke, Utah's Gail Miller, Anaheim's Susan Samueli, Buffalo's Kim Pegula and Detroit's Marian Ilitch as women with significant stakes in pro basketball and hockey teams.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.