Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s business interests have bounced from biotech to Los Angeles’ biggest newspaper. Now the billionaire may invest in Major League Baseball.
The owner of the Los Angeles Times is pondering a bid to buy the Anaheim-based Angels, the Orange County Register reported, citing a story first reported by Sportico.
Sportico, which has a subscriber paywall, announced the potential bid according to “two people familiar with the matter.”
Angels owner Arte Moreno announced last month that he is considering selling the Los Angeles Angels, based at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. A sale could take months or years.
The sale of the team would be separate – but indirectly linked – to real estate development of 153 acres under the stadium and surrounding land owned by the city.
A $320 million sale of the stadium to a business partnership led by Moreno to redevelop the property for more than 5,000 homes, offices, shops and restaurants blew up last spring in the wake of a stadium-related corruption scandal.
Soon-Shiong, inventor of the cancer drug Abraxane and founder of the Brentwood-based Nantworks conglomerate of healthtech companies, is no stranger to the baseball diamond.
He partnered with Steve Cohen in a failed attempt to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012. Cohen went on to buy the New York Mets. Soon-Shiong is a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers NBA team.
His net worth, according to Forbes: $7.2 billion.
The Angels are expected to sell for at least $2.5 billion, which would be a record for a Major League Baseball team, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Another likely candidate for the Angels is Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who attended UC Irvine and worked at Angel Stadium when he was young, according to the Register.
— Dana Bartholomew
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