Report: Broncos owner Rob Walton bought 10% stake in Diamondbacks
Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton bought a 10% ownership stake of the Arizona Diamondbacks two years ago.
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Denver Broncos owner Rob Walton bought a 10% ownership stake of the Arizona Diamondbacks two years ago, according to Sportico’s Justin Birnbaum, Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Soshnick.
Walton’s purchase was never publicly announced. “The bulk of the proceeds” was used for stadium improvements at Chase Field.
While a 9-figure check may seem outsized for some investors, it’s chump change for Walton, who is now worth roughly $146 billion, according to Forbes. The son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Rob and his fellow heirs collectively own around 45% of outstanding shares in the retail giant, which currently has a market cap north of $1 trillion.
Walton, who is the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, made a big splash in sports with his purchase of the Broncos in 2022 for $4.65 billion.
According to Sportico, he’s also an investor for the TGL’s Motor City Golf Club. While he has invested in sports teams, the 81-year-old Walton has pulled back his involvement with the Broncos and with Walmart’s chairman in the past three years.
The reported addition of the D-backs to his sports portfolio could also have an impact on another NL West team.
… while minority sales tend not to reflect control sale prices — because discounts or, in some cases, premiums are applied — Walton’s Diamondbacks deal could have a cascading effect on the next major transaction in MLB. The San Diego Padres are currently on the market, over two years after the death of control owner Peter Seidler.
Sportico reports the Diamondbacks franchise had a $2 billion valuation at the time of Walton’s purchase.
Ken Kendrick serves as the D-backs’ principal owner and managing partner.
He was a part of the original ownership group that founded the team in 1995 before taking over as managing general partner in 2004.
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Comments
1 Comments
How is this possible? If you are a shareholder of Amazon and you sell your shares, the proceeds doesn't go to Amazon. Amazon, the company, received their money from the IPO or if they issued additional shares to the public (which dilute the existing shareholders ownership).
If a Dbacks shareholder sold a 10% stake to Mr. Walton...Mr. Walton would have transferred the funds to the shareholder that own those shares. How does the Dbacks get this money since the money was transferred between two shareholders?
I see only three ways for the Dbacks to receive the money from Mr. Walton:
1) Dbacks issued additional shares...diluting the existing shareholder percentages and values...thus Mr. Walton transferred the money to the Dbacks.
2) Only 90% of the authorized shares of the Dbacks organization were sold thus having a 10% stake available for an investor.
3) An existing 10% shareholder sold their shares back to the Dbacks organization after the 2023 season and then the Dbacks sold this 10% stake to Mr. Walton in 2024. I have seen agreements where the organization buys back a shareholder wishing to sell or to leave the group.