Talk about timing: according to the National Post, Henry Samueli bought the Anaheim Ducks for $70 million, when Disney unloaded the team in the NHL lockout fire sale. The franchise is now worth $157 million, according to Forbes. The National Post profiled Samueli, the former UC Irvine UCLA prof and now chair of Broadcom, as the Ducks prepared for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Here's the lede, written by Bert Hill:
"He bought the NHL team for a song because nobody else wanted it. He picked hockey-savvy people to run the team and stayed out of their way. He is fabulously wealthy, building a company from scratch and taking it public in a brilliantly timed move that made him a billionaire. He lives in vast estate overlooking the ocean. He spreads his fortune generously on well-publicized causes.
But he is also famously combative, building a company where lawyers are almost as important as the experts who make the products. He is frequently in court, fighting competitors and regulators with vigour. He has also gotten his name into print for investigations probing past practices of his company."
