Magic Johnson is an exceptionally wealthy man.
L.A. TIMES: Who Is Guggenheim Partners?
He doesn’t have $2 billion sitting around.
Stan Kasten is, presumably, a wealthy man.
He probably doesn’t have $20 million sitting around. Let alone $2 billion.
So when I read that the Dodgers’ prospective ownership group is “led” by Magic Johnson (and perhaps Stan Kasten), I can’t help smirking just a bit. Because the leader of the group is actually whomever’s got the $2 billion. And that seems to be a company called Guggenheim Partners.
And who or what is Guggenheim Partners? From Walter Hamilton (via the L.A. Times):
Guggenheim Partners is connected to the family of Meyer Guggenheim, who came to the U.S. in the 1840s and made a fortune in mining. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is named after the family.
Peter Lawson Johnston II, a great-grandson of the Guggenheim’s patriarch, launched the financial services company in 2000. The company is run day to day by chief executive Mark Walter and executive chairman Alan Schwartz, the former CEO of Bear Stearns & Co.
The firm is a full-fledged investment bank in the mold of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley … The firm manages about $125 billion in assets.
There you go. Welcome to the future of Major League Baseball, friends. These days it’s about billions, rather than millions. Lots of billions, if you want in.
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