Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Buys the LA Clippers For $2 Billion

Posted by samzenpus on from the big-wallet dept.

DroidJason1 (3589319) writes "Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has purchased the LA Clippers for a whopping $2 billion, also setting a new record price for an NBA team. This deal is apparently tentative until Donald Sterling gives his blessing. Twenty-nine other NBA owners need to offer their approval as well, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as Ballmer reaffirms his commitment of keeping the Clippers in Los Angeles. Interestingly, Donald Sterling had purchased the team back in June of 1981 for $12.5 million." We talked about this earlier in the week when rumors of the purchase started circulating.

18 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. What a punishment by ClownPenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Poor racist bastard. We showed him!

    1. Re:What a punishment by fizzer06 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Most hated man in America buys team from the second most hated man.

    2. Re:What a punishment by rudy_wayne · · Score: 5, Funny

      Will he rename the teams to the Los Angeles Clippys?

    3. Re:What a punishment by colinrichardday · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, Blake Griffin! It looks like you're attempting a slam dunk. Would you like some help?

    4. Re:What a punishment by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Steve Ballmer has purchased the LA Clippers for a whopping $2 billion ... This deal is apparently tentative

      So, in other words, he has *not* purchased the Clippers (yet).

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    5. Re:What a punishment by Adriax · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder if he bought them for help with his chair throwing? I heard he's having problems with his follow through.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    6. Re:What a punishment by LifesABeach · · Score: 4, Funny

      One can only imagine what the chairs at the Staples Center will be thinking.

    7. Re:What a punishment by Fjandr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Which in turn can be boiled down to: It's profitable to be extremely wealthy.

    8. Re:What a punishment by blueturffan · · Score: 5, Funny

      If I had a dime for every dime I have...

  2. Oh No! by oldhack · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ballmer will be throwing chairs from the courtside now.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  3. Instead of a new TV I guess by fey000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like how one of the worst CEO's of all time still makes enough money to go on a $2 billion shopping spree.
    At my job, I only get a bonus when I perform above expectations...

    1. Re:Instead of a new TV I guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I like how you ignore the fac that he was the 30th employee of and owned an 8% stake in one of the largest and most successful companies ever. Idiot.

    2. Re:Instead of a new TV I guess by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Worst CEO of all time? geez most CEO's would give their right arm to be half as successful as he has been since he became CEO. Profits, revenue and sales all increased under him year on year with very good growth across the board while not allowing costs to blow out. Yes he had plenty of failures but from a business standpoint he has actually been a massive success for them with his successes far outweighing the failures, could he have been more successful with a few smarter choices, SURE, but very few CEO's have outperformed him over the past decade or so.

    3. Re:Instead of a new TV I guess by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just as long as you don't compare his performance to that of Apple, Google, or Facebook and completely ignore the failures in the longhorn, vista, windows Mobile, windows tablet, MS hailstorm, MSN Live, Bing, windows RT, Surface, Windows 8 and the decline of the PC form factor. Then yeah, he did great.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    4. Re:Instead of a new TV I guess by theskipper · · Score: 4, Informative

      Given the dotcom bubble I thought it would be unfair too. But if you look at just large cap tech, it's nowhere near as bad as what happened to the pure-play dotcoms and networkers:

      Over the same time frame:
      Oracle: $86B -> $185B
      Apple: $18B -> $547B
      HP: $45B -> $64B
      And of course IPOs that happened a couple years later like Google and Salesforce were multi-baggers.

      So comparing the peak mkt cap of the bubble is actually not that unfair. Considering Microsoft had a monopoly in 2000 and couldn't even maintain a constant enterprise value over 14 years, again, I wouldn't call that a "wildly successful" performance by the CEO.

  4. Next Steps by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Outsource players to Indian H1B visa holders.

    Force cross licensing with beer and food vendors.

    Require ticket upgrades before you are admitted, no matter how much you paid.

    Seasons will only be good in odd years.

    Any televised games will require DirectX support.

  5. This might be good for the team by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their hang time should increase dramatically...

  6. You forgot one by Ecuador · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go to the first team meeting and start yelling: "Defenders, defenders, defenders!"

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS