Billionaire Mike Bloomberg has reached an agreement to join Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore’s pursuit of the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to multiple people familiar with the plans, a move that could bolster the group as it enters arbitration with current owner Glen Taylor over the sale of the NBA team.
Bloomberg is helping to finance the fourth and final payment that the group led by Rodriguez and Lore is hoping to make to completely buy out Taylor, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. That would only happen if they win their arbitration battle over the third payment, which would give them control of the franchise and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
The buyers are planning to put all the money needed for those third and fourth payments, more than $900 million total, in escrow prior to arbitration, the sources said. That could clear up confusion over how much they have committed, and from where, which has been a part of Taylor’s argument. Bloomberg is funding a portion of the fourth payment, which itself is about $320 million, the sources said.
Rodriguez and Lore declined to comment. Bloomberg, who is worth $106.2 billion according to Forbes, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The Athletic was first to report on his involvement.
The legal battle dates back to the purchase agreement that Rodriguez, Lore and Taylor signed in 2021. The deal allowed the buyers to purchase the Timberwolves and Lynx over four payments—20%, 20%, 40% and then the final 20%.
Taylor announced in March that the deal was off, claiming that the buyers missed deadlines in the run-up to their buying the third tranche, the 40% stake that would give them control of the team. Rodriguez and Lore say they were operating within the contract and should be allowed to continue with the purchase. A one-day mediation last month failed to reach a resolution, and the groups will enter contractually obligated arbitration at some point in the next few months.
Co-founder of the financial data and media business Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg served as mayor of New York for 12 years from 2002 to 2013. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020. He was part of the group, led by David Rubenstein, that purchased the Baltimore Orioles earlier this year for $1.725 billion.
There are connections between both ownership groups and Bloomberg’s media operations. Rubenstein has a show on Bloomberg’s TV network; Rodriguez co-hosts a Bloomberg show called “The Deal,” which is distributed with the TV network and as a podcast.
The original deal with Taylor valued the Timberwolves at $1.5 billion in the first payment, with modest 4% value escalators over the following tranches. That was signed back during the COVID-19 pandemic, and NBA valuations have soared since then. Sportico currently values the team at $2.94 billion.
As they brought in investors to help fund their purchase, Rodriguez and Lore tried to do so at higher valuations than their own terms, according to multiple people familiar with the talks. Taylor announced the deal was off shortly after the Carlyle Group, which was in talks to fund a big piece of the latest payment, failed to reach an agreement with the NBA on a structure that the league would approve. Rodriguez and Lore claimed they sourced the funds from other means, including Dyal, and that the purchase agreement entitled them to a 90-day extension.
The 40% stake in dispute includes general partnership interests and all of the non-Taylor LP interests, according to a lawsuit filed after the agreement by the largest outside shareholder in the teams. The final payment, originally supposed to be the final 20%, is all equity from Taylor. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is part of the Lore-Rodriguez ownership group as well.