David Tepper is the new owner of the Carolina Panthers, and the hedge fund manager spent the prettiest of pennies to acquire the team.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media revealed the official purchase price of $2.275 billion, which is a record in the United States.
The official sale price of the Carolina #Panthers is $2.275 billion, source said. $2.2 billion of that sum will be paid in cash by new owner David Tepper. This is a new record price for the purchase of a US sports franchise. 💰💰💰
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 16, 2018
Tepper bought the franchise from disgraced co-founder and now-former owner Jerry Richardson. He’d been investigated for workplace misconduct and slowly relinquished control of the team.
Bids for the Panthers were expected to exceed $2.5 billion, but Tepper managed to stay a bit south of the mark. Reportedly, he has a net worth of $11.7 billion and earns an annual salary of $2.2 billion.