In a surprising development, the Mark Mastrov and Ron Burkle group have added another big name to their investor group: Vivek Ranadivé.
Ranadivé is a current minority owner for the Golden State Warriors as well as the chief executive of TIBCO, a $4 billion software company in Silicon Valley. Ranadivé is a native of India and would have to sell his minority ownership of the Warriors in order to help buy the Kings. Sam Amick of USA Today reports that Ranadivé joins the Mastrov group after "pushing for a more significant say in personnel matters."
This news comes a couple weeks after David Stern made comments in Oakland that the Mastrov-Burkle bid featured a "substantial variance" from the reported $525 million franchise valuation offered by Seattle's Hansen-Ballmer group. This addition will likely help eliminate that variance.
The Bee reports that Ranadivé owns 8% of TIBCO, a value of about $318 million, but there is no solid information as to his total net worth. Ranadivé is also a New York Times best-selling author, whose last book received some promotion from NBA commissioner David Stern himself.
Ranadivé offered this confirmation of reports on Twitter today:
Looking forward to supporting @kj_mayorjohnson as we work towards keeping the @sacramentokings where they belong. #HereWeStay
— Vivek Ranadivé (@Vivek) March 21, 2013
Excited to be a part of the revitalization of a great community and the globalization of an amazing franchise. #HereWeStay
— Vivek Ranadivé (@Vivek) March 21, 2013
In other, related news, the city is still negotiating a term sheet for a downtown arena with the Mastrov-Burkle group. The city had hoped to file the term sheet today but announced that the negotiation was still continuing. City Manager John Shirey offered this statement per the Bee:
"We continue to make progress and have productive discussions with the Investor Group," Shirey said in a statement. "It is important to get this right and not rush to make an artificial deadline. The bottom line for me is to get the best deal possible while adhering to the Council's adopted core principles, including a city commitment comparable to last year, no new taxes, and protection for the General Fund."
UPDATE 3:47 PM
Ken Berger of CBSSports reports that Ranadivé will be the lead partner in the Sacramento Kings ownership group if they are successful. He would be the first Indian majority owner in the NBA.
Marc Spears of Yahoo! also says that Ranadive will retain his interest in the Warriors if the bid to keep the Kings in Sacramento is unsuccessful. In other words, he doesn't need to sell his share of the Warriors immediately to be part of the bid.