Hedge fund manager to buy Carolina Panthers for record price
Hedge fund manager David Tepper is expected to sign a deal Tuesday to buy the Carolina Panthers for $2.2 billion in cash.
A source close to the process told the Observer that the deal will be subject to an owners' vote at the next NFL meeting, which runs next Monday through Wednesday in Atlanta.
The $2.2 billion would be a record for an NFL franchise, besting the $1.4 billion price for the Buffalo Bills in 2014. It would also match the $2.2 billion price for the Houston Rockets NBA team.
The Observer and other media outlets reported last week that Tepper was set to become the team's new owner, ending a more than five-month search for a buyer for the franchise that began play in 1995. ESPN reporter Adam Schefter also tweeted that the deal would be signed Tuesday.
Panthers owner and founder Jerry Richardson announced plans to sell the team in December on the same day Sports Illustrated published an explosive report detailing allegations of sexual and racial misconduct against Richardson.
Tepper, 60, is the richest of the known bidders who sought to buy the Panthers, with a net worth of $11 billion, according to Forbes. He’s also the only known bidder already vetted by the NFL, as he is part-owner of his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tepper prevailed among a group of bidders that also included Charleston financial services CEO Ben Navarro, steel company CEO Alan Kestenbaum and e-commerce entrepreneur Michael Rubin.
Raised in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Tepper paid his way through the University of Pittsburgh by working at the campus library. After college, he worked as a credit and securities analyst at Equibank in Pittsburgh before going on to get his MBA at Carnegie Mellon.
Tepper now runs Appaloosa Management, which manages about $17 billion and is based in Miami.
Carnegie Mellon's business school bears Tepper’s name, thanks to a $55 million gift from the billionaire in 2004. Tepper has remained close to the school over the years and is delivering its commencement address Sunday.
Always a sports fan, Tepper bought a 5 percent stake in the Steelers in 2009, the year the team won the Super Bowl. His investment is now worth $122.5 million, based on the current valuation of the Steelers ($2.45 billion, per Forbes).
Tepper has long been involved in charitable organizations in the different areas where he has planted roots, including Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Miami. A source who knows Tepper has said that if he were to come to Charlotte, “you should assume that (philanthropy) would continue.”
Tepper, who visited Charlotte in early April, has said he likes the city.
"I have to tell you, for me, I like the people down there. They remind me of my original hometown, Pittsburgh,” Tepper told the Observer in April.
The New York Times reported in April that Tepper appeared unlikely to emerge as the winner because he was unwilling to meet the Panthers’ asking price of $2.5 billion. But Tepper called the Observer later that day to say he was still in the bidding process.
This story was originally published May 15, 2018 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Hedge fund manager to buy Carolina Panthers for record price."