McCourt sold the Los Angeles Dodgers for a hefty sum in 2012. Here’s how he’s been building his business and media empire since, and setting up a potential consortium to purchase TikTok.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/05/15/who-is-frank-mccourt-the-billionaire-trying-to-buy-tiktok/?sh=68f6df0653a4
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/05/15/who-is-frank-mccourt-the-billionaire-trying-to-buy-tiktok/?sh=68f6df0653a4
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, May 17.
00:05Today on Forbes, who is Frank McCourt, the billionaire trying to buy TikTok?
00:12Billionaire investor and entrepreneur Frank McCourt is organizing a bid to buy TikTok
00:16through Project Liberty.
00:18Project Liberty is an organization to which McCourt's pledged $500 million that aims
00:23to fight for a safe, healthier internet where user data is owned by users themselves, rather
00:29than by tech giants like TikTok parent ByteDance, Meta, and Alphabet.
00:34Project Liberty announced the potential bid on Wednesday and is planning to work with
00:38investment bank Guggenheim Securities and law firm Kirkland & Ellis on the deal in partnership
00:44with several of the leading technologists already participating in the Project Liberty
00:48initiative.
00:50McCourt is entering the conversation with a track record of heavy criticism of tech
00:54giants, especially of Chinese-owned TikTok.
00:57In November, he told Forbes, "...we have to break the model, or evolve the model, into
01:02one where it returns the control, the agency, the choice, the ownership, and the rights
01:08to individuals.
01:09It's either really Chinese tech or American.
01:12Those are your choices."
01:14Best known as the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, McCourt, who is 70 years
01:19old, spent most of the past decade focused on investing the approximately $850 million
01:25in proceeds from the team's 2012 sale via his company McCourt Global.
01:30He sprinkled money into sports, real estate, technology, media, and an investment firm
01:35focused on private credit.
01:37In January 2023, McCourt stepped down as CEO of McCourt Global to focus on Project Liberty,
01:43but remains executive chairman and 100% owner.
01:47McCourt's assets are worth an estimated $1.4 billion, landing him on Forbes' billionaires
01:52list for the first time this year.
01:55McCourt plans to raise money from foundations, endowments, pension funds, and the general
02:00public as part of his plan to shift users' accounts to a protocol that gives them more
02:04control of their digital identities and data, this according to Semaphore.
02:10The TikTok bid will likely run into a wealth of competition, some from the very same tech
02:15giants that are the subject of McCourt's criticism of the world's tech infrastructure.
02:20McCourt is no stranger to long-shot plans, given Project Liberty's broad mission.
02:26McCourt's entrepreneurial roots date back five generations, when his great-grandfather
02:30founded the McCourt Company, a Boston-based construction business.
02:34He attended college at Georgetown University, graduating with an economics degree in 1975,
02:39before returning to Massachusetts and developing real estate in the Boston seaport beginning
02:44in the 1980s.
02:46He tried to buy his beloved Boston Red Sox in 2001, but lost the bid to billionaires
02:50John Henry and Tom Werner.
02:53A few years later, he reportedly used 24 acres of land on the South Boston waterfront as
02:58collateral to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers at an enterprise value of $371 million in
03:042004.
03:06His controversial tenure as the Dodgers' owner, which included allegations of financial
03:10mismanagement and tax avoidance, ended with the team filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
03:14protection in 2011.
03:17McCourt sold the Dodgers for $2.2 billion in 2012, the largest sports sale in history
03:22at the time, netting him approximately $850 million in cash after taxes and a highly litigious
03:29divorce.
03:30In the meantime, McCourt has sold most of his Boston real estate, much of it in 2006,
03:36and began to diversify his investments.
03:38Now his property holdings include a cluster of buildings in the high-end Dallas Design
03:42District and stakes in commercial and residential real estate in California, Texas, and London.
03:48He's also continued to invest in sports.
03:51In 2014, McCourt Global bought a 50% share of the Global Champions League and Tour, one
03:56of the equestrian world's most well-known show-jumping competitions, which he sold for
04:01an undisclosed sum in 2022.
04:04Four years after the Dodgers sale, McCourt also bought storied French soccer club Olympique
04:09de Marseille for approximately $50 million.
04:12He's since invested heavily in the team, which generated more than $200 million in
04:17revenue in the 2021-22 season, though the team has reportedly lost hundreds of millions
04:22since McCourt purchased it, according to reporting by The Athletic.
04:27Around the same time, McCourt founded a private credit-focused investment firm, MGG Investment
04:31Group, which grew from $300 million under management in 2016 to $5.6 billion in 2023.
04:40For full coverage, check out Phoebe Liu's piece on Forbes.com.
04:46This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:48Thanks for tuning in.