Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia is completing the purchase of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury from the WNBA for a record $4 billion, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The deal, which is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday, will end owner Robert Sarver’s tumultuous tenure.
Ishbia is well known and well regarded within the league office, including with commissioner Adam Silver, and has developed relationships with a number of NBA owners. He will have to undergo a background check and a vote of approval from the board of governors, but that should be a formality, sources said.
Justin Ishbia, a founding partner of Shore Capital, will make a significant investment and serve as alternate governor, sources told ESPN. He is the brother of Mat Ishbia.
The Suns’ sales record marks a new day in the rising valuations of NBA teams. Joe Tsai bought the Brooklyn Nets for an NBA record $2.35 billion in 2019. Prior to this sale, Tilman Fertitta bought the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion in 2017, with Steve Ballmer buying the LA Clippers for $2 billion in 2014.
The Lakers had a minority stake sold for a higher valuation than the Suns’ $4 billion purchase, gaining a $5 billion valuation.
Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, a Michigan-based company, has sued NBA and NFL teams for the past few years and eventually struck a deal to own the Suns. Ishbia was an extra for Michigan State and was part of the Spartans National Championship team in 2000. He remained close with Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo and he once donated $32 million to the basketball program.
The sale will end Sarver’s tenure with the Suns, which dates back to 2004, when he led a group to buy the team for a record $401 million from Jerry Colangelo.
Two current members of the Suns’ ownership group told ESPN’s Baxter Holmes that they learned of Ishbia’s impending purchase on Tuesday and were surprised at the speed of the process.
An investment bank official familiar with the process told ESPN that a particularly motivated buyer — and one the league knows well — can significantly speed up a sale.
Jack Selby, the managing director of Thiel Capital, and Jason Pressman, who is the managing director of Shasta Ventures, had submitted a $3 billion offer to buy the Suns and Mercury. They told ESPN’s Holmes that Ishbia’s offer “was new to us”.
“We haven’t heard from anyone involved in the process,” Selby and Pressman told ESPN. “If we were involved, we would have been a great group.”
Sarver announced in September. 21 that he would sell the Suns and Mercury in mid-September, shortly after the NBA announced the findings of a 10-month investigation into his conduct as majority owner of the Suns.
The NBA commissioned this investigation, led by New York law firm Wachtell Lipton, following an ESPN article in November 2021 detailing allegations of racism and misogyny during Sarver’s 17 years as a owner.
As part of the league’s punishment, announced Sept. 1. On January 13, Sarver was fined $10 million and suspended for a year, although growing outrage led him to announce he was selling the Suns and Mercury shortly thereafter.
Sarver chose investment bank Moelis & Company to oversee the sale, and investment bank officials who have handled sales of professional sports franchises have previously told ESPN they expect the price end of the transaction set a record.
In September, Suns executive vice president and chief financial officer Jim Pitman advised team employees that a fully executed sale of the team could take six to nine months, sources said at the time. team, a schedule that would span the 2022-23 season.
But in recent weeks, team employees have told ESPN that groups of potential bidders have been seen touring team facilities. Sarver owns about a third of the franchise, but he has the power, as the team’s managing partner, to sell the entire team, sources told ESPN.
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