Report: Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia to buy Suns from Robert Sarver
Dec 20, 2022, 10:21 AM
Tom Brady, left, and Mat Ishbia, right, at a United Wholesale Mortgage lending event in May 2022. (Twitter Photo/@Mishbia15)
(Twitter Photo/@Mishbia15)
Billionaire mortgage lender and former Michigan State basketball player Mat Ishbia is finalizing a purchase of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury from Robert Sarver, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The sale will reportedly be “in the neighborhood” of $4 billion, Wojnarowski adds.
Ishbia, 42, is chairman and CEO of mortgage lender United Wholesale Mortgage, based in Michigan. He will be the youngster NBA team owner.
His net worth is $4.9 billion this year, according to Forbes.com.
Ishbia won the national title with Michigan State in 2000.
Sarver announced in September that he will sell the organization, citing it is “what’s best” after the NBA suspended him and fined him on findings of workplace behavior that included racist language, misogyny and bullying.
Sarver said that he first expected to reflect and self-improve himself during a one-year suspension from the team, but the “unforgiving climate” made it clear a return will not allow for the teams to move forward.
The NBA in September suspended Sarver one year and fined him the maximum $10 million after concluding an investigation into allegations he used racist and misogynistic language in the workplace.
PayPal took the notable step of announcing it would not renew its partnership with the Suns — it owns ad space on the team jersey — if Sarver were to return.
Interviewing 320 individuals and evaluating more than 80,000 documents, the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz concluded in an investigation that Sarver “clearly violated common workplace standards” including “use of racially insensitive language; unequal treatment of female employees, sex-related statements and conduct; and harsh treatment of employees that on occasion constituted bullying.”
Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz said that the “investigation makes no finding that Sarver’s conduct was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.”
The full report by Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz can be viewed here.
This story was first published by Sactown Sports‘ sister station, Arizona Sports.
