Golden State Warriors Sold For Record $450 MIllion

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 15th 2010 at 9:01PM

In a startling turn, the frontrunner to be the next owner of the Golden State Warriors basketball team, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has come up short. The new owner will be Joseph Lacob. The Mercury News reports that Lacob, a managing partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capitalist firm in Menlo Park is also part owner of the Boston Celtics. His Golden State Warriors group includes Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment. Guber's Mandalay Baseball Properties owns a bunch of minor league baseball teams and was reportedly once interested in buying the Oakland Athletics.

There seems to be some controversy over the decision. Ellison has claimed that he submitted a higher bid but his bid may have come too late. "This is my dream come true," said Lacob, in a statement and he stated that he and Peter Guber are committed to building the team into a championship organization that will "make all of us in the Bay Area proud."

As now-former owner Chris Cohan hoped it would, the sale price broke the record of $401 million set by the Phoenix Suns sale. Lacob and his group paid $450 million for the Warriors. Cohan bought the team for $120 million in 1995.

Tags: basketball team, golden state warriors, joseph lacob, larry ellison, nbc, peter guber