By now, you’ve likely either read or had a discussion about the Seattle vs. Silicon Valley entrepreneurial debate. Heck, the good folks over at Killer Infographics even designed the badass poster you see above that artistically describes the different characteristics of each region’s geeks.
Now that discussion is moving to the basketball court.
For a while, it seemed as though Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his investment group were poised to acquire the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team when they reached an agreement with the Maloof family in January to buy 65 percent of the Sacramento Kings for a reported $341 million.
But now Sacramento is fighting back, and two tech titans from the Valley have stepped up with more money less than a month before the NBA makes its decision to block the Seattle group’s bid to bring basketball back to the Emerald City.
Last night, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson announced that San Diego-based Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has joined the group of investors trying to keep the Kings in town.
I'm thrilled to welcome Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs to Sacramento! Another visionary who believes strongly in this market. #playingtowin
— Kevin Johnson (@KJ_MayorJohnson) March 26, 2013
This news comes just one week after software giant TIBCO CEO Vivek Ranadive announced his involvement. The two CEOs join a pair of other investors from California — Ron Burkle, a Los Angeles businessman, and Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness — that will try to block Seattle from acquiring its team.
Johnson Tweeted this about the “whale” investors group:
A true Dream Team! This Fab Four is a bracket buster. #PlayingToWin!
— Kevin Johnson (@KJ_MayorJohnson) March 26, 2013
But here’s the thing. The Ballmer group, which is also led by investor Chris Hansen, already reached an agreement with the current owners and even put down a $30 million non-refundable deposit earlier this year.
The Sacramento group will need to convince a group of NBA owners to stop the Seattle deal when everyone meets on April 3. They have a few things going for them with the new investor money and a new arena deal that could be approved Tuesday night. But the owners haven’t been known to block team sales like this very often.
Both parties will reconvene in front of the full NBA Board of Governors at its annual meeting April 18-19 when the official vote happens.
NBA Commissioner David Stern had given Johnson a March 1 deadline to come up with an ownership group that would counter the Hansen/Ballmer offer and convince the NBA to keep the Kings in Sacramento.
Johnson did that on February 28, announcing Burkle’s and Mastrov’s participation. One week later, Stern said publicly that the Sacramento bid was far too low in comparison with what Hansen and Ballmer were offering.
But now the addition of Jacobs and Ranadive will help Sacramento. Still, if Hansen and Ballmer can get a three-quarters supermajority approval from the board next month, the Sonics will be back in Seattle.
In terms of Ballmer’s involvement with all this, reports came out in June that the Microsoft CEO was part of the investment group with Hansen. It’s not surprising: Ballmer was a regular at Sonics games before the team departed for Oklahoma City in 2008 and also was part of another investment group that tried to keep the team here. Seattle has been without a team since then.
Two months ago, in what was clearly a grandstanding move, California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinburg sent a letter to the California Department of General Services, citing Ballmer’s involvement in the Kings deal and asking for details of Microsoft’s contracts with the state.
Previously on GeekWire: Seattle’s new arena might look like a supersonic jet engine
