[Krawczynski] Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore in serious talks to become the next owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves

[KGdaBom]

It’s very obvious a tell. Why would you not allow your co owners speak to staff or be in the building if this isn’t Taylor’s massively inflated ego?

Because they are in litigation against him. Duh.

They aren't even officially in litigation yet?

Close enough.

[younggunsmn]

Hat tip to hartordwhalers, he found a link that says Lore owned 25% of Jet at time of acquisition.
https://digiday.com/marketing/walmarts-acquisition-jet-winners-losers/
This link backs that up, says he could make 750 million to 1 billion from its sale.
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/10/12423902/walmart-jet-marc-lore-ceo-package-deal-terms

Deal was for 3 billion + 300 million in walmart stock.

So Lore would have earned 750 million plus 75 million of Walmart stock, which is probably worth double now.

So with his payout from Diapers.com, I'd put him at 1.1 billion minus his investments into Jet and later companies, taxes, alimony, 50 million dollar penthouse, etc.

Not a lot to own a 2.5 billion dollar franchise.

[thinktank]

Well, look at the market.

It went up a TON in the past few years.

I don’t know the date of all those sales / payouts, but a couple of the recent years I averaged ~25% returns! Yes, there was a down year, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lore’s made a ton of money in the market.

He could have made 33% on what he already had.

“ Year-to-date, the index was up 6.84% (7.11%), as the 2023 return was up 24.23% (26.29%), making up for 2022's 19.44% decline; the one-year return was 28.36% (30.45%). The index was up 50.50% (60.64%) from its pre-COVID-19 Feb. 19, 2020, closing high.”

SP500 doing record things. The rich are getting much richer.

Lore IS NOT a dummy.

[shrink]

I don’t know the date of all those sales / payouts, but a couple of the recent years I averaged ~25% returns! Yes, there was a down year, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lore’s made a ton of money in the market.

Would you lend millions to a guy that said:

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility that I made a ton of money in the market?”

The Forbes valuations are not from 2020.

[shrink]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

[Worm Guts]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

I would think that’s not unusual for someone who deals with the amount of money Lore does.

[jpatrick]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

He’s playing with words. Most, not all, high level disputes get settled without actual litigation. Actual filing is expensive and timely. He may never have sued/been sued, but I guarantee that there has been many settlements that were handled by lawyers. Additionally, he may never been sued personally, but litigation would generally be through his entities, not naming him personally, which, again, would be expected.

Now, he has sold companies worth ALOT of money. Maybe those deals went down without this type of problems but the overall statement appears somewhat disingenuous.

I don’t care who owns the Wolves. I feel like Lore/Arod have made better decisions. But having cash poor owners would be hugely problematic in the long run. The one thing that’s been clear over the past couple years is that Lore/Arod are going to struggle with cash flow. Way too many sources have reported problems making these payments to think the issue will just go away if the deal went through.

[shrink]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

I would think that’s not unusual for someone who deals with the amount of money Lore does.

Yeah, I could have believed it if I heard him saying that. I could have believed him if he had said, “we never trusted Taylor from the start, so we hired an expensive, elite, law firm from the start.” But he said he was “blind-sided” by this, and something like “we’re just so lucky we had the expensive, elite law firm make this contract.”

I don’t know if he has the money. Personally, I doubt it. I don’t know how the arbiter will rule on whether they met deadlines, or if the Board of Governors will accept their lender for this deal. But as you probably realize from my angriest posts, I am a stickler for language, particularly when I feel dishonest people use language to manipulate the sentiments of a generally unaware and vulnerable public. That’s how I felt here.

[Worm Guts]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

I would think that’s not unusual for someone who deals with the amount of money Lore does.

Yeah, I could have believed it if I heard him saying that. I could have believed him if he had said, “we never trusted Taylor from the start, so we hired an expensive, elite, law firm from the start.” But he said he was “blind-sided” by this, and something like “we’re just so lucky we had the expensive, elite law firm make this contract.”

.

When you deal with these amounts of money, you don’t just trust people. Everything goes through lawyers regardless of how you feel about the other party.

[younggunsmn]

Well, look at the market.

It went up a TON in the past few years.

I don’t know the date of all those sales / payouts, but a couple of the recent years I averaged ~25% returns! Yes, there was a down year, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lore’s made a ton of money in the market.

He could have made 33% on what he already had.

“ Year-to-date, the index was up 6.84% (7.11%), as the 2023 return was up 24.23% (26.29%), making up for 2022's 19.44% decline; the one-year return was 28.36% (30.45%). The index was up 50.50% (60.64%) from its pre-COVID-19 Feb. 19, 2020, closing high.”

SP500 doing record things. The rich are getting much richer.

Lore IS NOT a dummy.

The market isn't making anyone that much richer in relative terms, they're all just able to use it to dodge inflation while those of us who have bills to pay are getting screwed over by it. Rich people things like cars, clothes, boats, and real estate are going sky high too.
Market up 50%. Gas and grocery (and housing if you didn't have a house/payments locked in pre-covid) costs have about doubled over last 3 years.
See a pattern here?

It sounds like Lore has put big chunks of that into other projects instead of the stock market.
400 million into the wolves, probably a couple hundred million into Wonder. Funding people working on Telosa.
If he's diversified, probably a big chunk into bonds and real estate too.
He's gotta pay taxes too in New York, although he's obviously got people who know how to avoid them as much as possible.
It's not at all a stretch to see this guy might be just about tapped out.

Walmart locked Lore into a 5 year contract to run their online business when they bought Jet, and let him out of it early because they didn't like the results.

The shareholders sued when Wonder bought that Blue group for 5 cents on the dollar. He got divorced.
This guy's obviously been sued before, it's just spin.
Good luck winning a public opinion battle as a couple of New York hucksters in Minnesota against the native who has owned the team for 30 years and saved it from moving.

Lore is a fake rich guy who lucked out having a couple of iffy startups get gobbled up by unstoppable monoliths.
The second he owns the team, we are going to hear about nothing but replacing Target Centers, and this guy is going to have no money to contribute to that unlike the Wilfs who paid for a good chunk of US Bank and seem to own half of Eagan now.

[shrink]

I would think that’s not unusual for someone who deals with the amount of money Lore does.

Yeah, I could have believed it if I heard him saying that. I could have believed him if he had said, “we never trusted Taylor from the start, so we hired an expensive, elite, law firm from the start.” But he said he was “blind-sided” by this, and something like “we’re just so lucky we had the expensive, elite law firm make this contract.”

.

When you deal with these amounts of money, you don’t just trust people. Everything goes through lawyers regardless of how you feel about the other party.

Then don’t tell us you do trust people, how shocked you were, or how retaining this expensive firm was lucky. That’s crap.

[Worm Guts]

Well, look at the market.

It went up a TON in the past few years.

I don’t know the date of all those sales / payouts, but a couple of the recent years I averaged ~25% returns! Yes, there was a down year, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lore’s made a ton of money in the market.

He could have made 33% on what he already had.

“ Year-to-date, the index was up 6.84% (7.11%), as the 2023 return was up 24.23% (26.29%), making up for 2022's 19.44% decline; the one-year return was 28.36% (30.45%). The index was up 50.50% (60.64%) from its pre-COVID-19 Feb. 19, 2020, closing high.”

SP500 doing record things. The rich are getting much richer.

Lore IS NOT a dummy.

The market isn't making anyone that much richer in relative terms, they're all just able to use it to dodge inflation while those of us who have bills to pay are getting screwed over by it. Rich people things like cars, clothes, boats, and real estate are going sky high too.
Market up 50%. Gas and grocery (and housing if you didn't have a house/payments locked in pre-covid) costs have about doubled over last 3 years.
See a pattern here?

.

There’s no real limit to how much richer the market can make you. That’s entirely dependent on what your portfolio looks like.

[thinktank]

Another thing I found pretty fishy was Lore said something like, “I’ve never sued anyone, or been sued. I take people at their word. And something about a handshake means everything to him”

So why do you have one of the premiere law firms in the world on retainer? Those guys can’t be cheap. If you went out of your way to tell us fans how you trusted Taylor, and his actions completely blindsided you and you had no idea that could happen — why were you spending so much on lawyers ahead of time?

He always has lawyers on retainer for contract review purposes. That’s entirely normal.

[thinktank]

Well, look at the market.

It went up a TON in the past few years.

I don’t know the date of all those sales / payouts, but a couple of the recent years I averaged ~25% returns! Yes, there was a down year, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Lore’s made a ton of money in the market.

He could have made 33% on what he already had.

“ Year-to-date, the index was up 6.84% (7.11%), as the 2023 return was up 24.23% (26.29%), making up for 2022's 19.44% decline; the one-year return was 28.36% (30.45%). The index was up 50.50% (60.64%) from its pre-COVID-19 Feb. 19, 2020, closing high.”

SP500 doing record things. The rich are getting much richer.

Lore IS NOT a dummy.

The market isn't making anyone that much richer in relative terms, they're all just able to use it to dodge inflation while those of us who have bills to pay are getting screwed over by it. Rich people things like cars, clothes, boats, and real estate are going sky high too.
Market up 50%. Gas and grocery (and housing if you didn't have a house/payments locked in pre-covid) costs have about doubled over last 3 years.
See a pattern here?

.

There’s no real limit to how much richer the market can make you. That’s entirely dependent on what your portfolio looks like.

Correct.

If Lore is a savvy investor, as most rich people are, then he probably did make a ton of money recently.

I know I did.

[thinktank]

Yeah, I could have believed it if I heard him saying that. I could have believed him if he had said, “we never trusted Taylor from the start, so we hired an expensive, elite, law firm from the start.” But he said he was “blind-sided” by this, and something like “we’re just so lucky we had the expensive, elite law firm make this contract.”

.

When you deal with these amounts of money, you don’t just trust people. Everything goes through lawyers regardless of how you feel about the other party.

Then don’t tell us you do trust people, how shocked you were, or how retaining this expensive firm was lucky. That’s crap.

There’s a difference between hiring a great law firm to review a complicated purchase agreement and being sued or suing someone.

My goodness.

[Nick K]

Hat tip to hartordwhalers, he found a link that says Lore owned 25% of Jet at time of acquisition.
https://digiday.com/marketing/walmarts-acquisition-jet-winners-losers/
This link backs that up, says he could make 750 million to 1 billion from its sale.
https://www.vox.com/2016/8/10/12423902/walmart-jet-marc-lore-ceo-package-deal-terms

Deal was for 3 billion + 300 million in walmart stock.

So Lore would have earned 750 million plus 75 million of Walmart stock, which is probably worth double now.

So with his payout from Diapers.com, I'd put him at 1.1 billion minus his investments into Jet and later companies, taxes, alimony, 50 million dollar penthouse, etc.

Not a lot to own a 2.5 billion dollar franchise.

I find it curious why you just talk about Lore and his money. You don't have any idea of how much money he has. You're just guessing based on what you've been able to amateur sleuth on the internet or glean from other internet opinions that probably have no idea either.

Why aren't you talking about the other people that make up the buying group? Such as Arod, the Dyal Group, and Eric Schmidt? They have a pot full of money if needed. Are you worried about Lo/Rod not being able to cover operating expenses? I don't get your squabble.

I do get that you have an irrational dislike for the new proposed ownership group. That's ok by me just come out and say it.

I can't fathom the new proposed ownership group not having more than enough money to fund the team and pay the players big money. So what's the real issue here?

[Nick K]

I feel very comfortable with my financial knowledge.

Now, as to why Forbes should not be trusted on what Forbes believes Lore is worth, I'm still confused. It seems such a strange think to even have to say. So, if you two want to actually address why we shouldn't believe Forbes for what Forbes thinks Lore is worth, I would appreciate the listen. Or just tell me more about your 0% stock retirement strategy, maybe you will teach me a thing or two there as well.

I'm not going to waste my time further. I've laid out in detail the overall financial backing of the Lo/rod group including Dyal group and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Splitting hairs on Lore's net worth is meaningless! You have to look at the ownership group in total.

I've described my business.credentials. You haven't. BTW, I'm not comfortable with your financial knowledge. Quite the contrary. However, you are entitled to you own opinion. I respect that. I just think you are misguided here and your argument is fauty. Nothing more. Regards.

It seems that Lore and A Rod don't have their own money they need to rely on Schmidt and Dyal Group. I'd prefer having the owners actually be the people with the financial investment than investors into their investment.

Just one other thing KGdabom, do you think Glen Taylor would have offered to sell Lo/Rod this team 3 years ago if they didn't have the ability to buy it? Don't you think Taylor did his due diligence of them at that time when it all started?

Why would you be worried or even care? Of course they have the money. Do you want a snake of an owner that makes historically bad decisions for the team to continue to own the team?

It's my understanding that Taylor specifically asked them to buy this over a 3 year period so he could stay on board for the transition.

Have you been happy with Lo/Rods direction of the club with the Gobert and Connelly hires? Then what's the issue?

Did you watch the Lo/Rod rebuttal video that Dane did and was posted?

[Neeva]

It’s really odd that some wolves fans think arod/Lore will be cheap owners when every move since they arrived has been the exact opposite of that. Old Glen a pathetic owner for 98 percent of his tenure(one of the worst in all professional sports franchises) has way too many loyalists and apologists that believe his every evil word.


I knew that the greedy old Glen staying on board for another 2-3 years was going to be nothing but bad news.. He is like a dark cloud over this entire franchise!!

Only thing people here seem to like about Glen is “at least he plans to keep the team in Minnesota always” ..
That’s the carrot he dangles to poor wolves fans while he runs his organization like a loser clown show.

[Mattya]

Because they are in litigation against him. Duh.

They aren't even officially in litigation yet?

Close enough.

What would someone who is on the up and up have to worry about litigation? Especially someone who claims to be looking forward to working with ARod and Lore...

[Mattya]

It’s really odd that some wolves fans think arod/Lore will be cheap owners when every move since they arrived has been the exact opposite of that. Old Glen a pathetic owner for 98 percent of his tenure(one of the worst in all professional sports franchises) has way too many loyalists and apologists that believe his every evil word.


I knew that the greedy old Glen staying on board for another 2-3 years was going to be nothing but bad news.. He is like a dark cloud over this entire franchise!!

Only thing people here seem to like about Glen is “at least he plans to keep the team in Minnesota always” ..
That’s the carrot he dangles to poor wolves fans while he runs his organization like a loser clown show.

All while Glen is the one talking about the team being very expensive and how there will be tough decisions coming.