Warriors sale at $450 million: I'm glad it's not Larry Ellison!

Larry Ellison 

The Golden State (Oakland) Warriors NBA organization was sold today for a record $450 million and this space is happy Oracle Chairman of The Board and Co-Founder Larry Ellison wasn't the buyer of the storied Warriors because from all accounts, Ellison would have worked to move the team to San Francisco.

Instead, the buyer was famous Hollywood movie producer Peter Guber and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Venture Capitalist Joe Lacob. While it's not clear these two will keep the team in Oakland, at least its more certain than if Larry Ellison had bought the team.

Ellison claims that he, and not Guber and Lacob, had the highest bid for the team, but he was snubbed. According to S.I.com's Frank Hughes, Ellison said "Although I was the highest bidder, Chris Cohan decided to sell to someone else. In my experience this is a bit unusual. Nonetheless, I wish the Warriors and their fans nothing but success under their new ownership."

Whatever the case, the next steps are for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority to approve the sale, which should not be a problem, and to determine what the new owners are going to do.

My personal view is the sale was engineered to keep the team in Oakland. To do otherwise - to give it to the combative Ellison, would produce a scenario that would tie both he and the City of Oakland and The County of Alameda in court for years to come.

Why? Because Larry Ellison would have been sued if he tried to move the team. In fact, so will Lacob and Guber, if they try to do so. But that group's not going to do it; Ellison would chance it.

Stay tuned.