Jump to content

Wes Edens


NurembergVillan

Recommended Posts

Today the club have announced "significant investment" from a company called NSWE, headed by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.

It is assumed that they have bought a controlling stake in order to ease the club's cashflow problems and will eventually complete a full takeover of the club, although this is yet to be confirmed.

Here is some information about Wes -

Quote

Wesley Robert Edens is an American businessman, private equity investor and sports team owner.[1] A cofounder of Fortress Investment Group,[citation needed] Edens is a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, a National Basketball Association(NBA) franchise based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, along with Marc Lasry. He also owns the League of Legends team FlyQuest.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Edens received a B.S. in Finance and Business Administration from Oregon State University in 1984.[2]

Career[edit]

Lehman Brothers and BlackRock[edit]

He began his career in 1987 at Lehman Brothers, where he was a partner and managing director until 1993.[3] He then went to BlackRock's private equity division BlackRock Asset Investors, where he remained until 1997 as a partner and managing director.[4][3]

Fortress Investment Group[edit]

Wes Edens was one of five principal partners—Peter (Pete) Briger, Jr., Robert (Rob) Kauffman, Randal (Randy) Nardone and Michael Edward (Mike) or (Novo) Novogratz[5]—who founded Fortress Investments in 1998.[6] Edens investment style was described in a 2007 The Wall Street Journal article as one based on "contrarian bets, creative financing and a knack for building business from investments."[7] Fortress became the first publicly traded buyout firm on February 9, 2007 with Eden and his partners taking the company public through its initial public offering.[5][8] Fortress had sold an 8% share to the public for $600 million by 2009.

By 2007 Fortress assets under management included both private equity and publicly traded alternative investment vehicles—fourteen private equity funds, four hedge funds, and two real estate vehicles, and went public. When the Japanese financial holding company, Nomura Holdings acquired 15% of Fortress for $888 million in December 2006 with proceeds going to the five principals, Edens and his partners became paper billionaires.[9][10] Edens became Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors at Fortress in 2009,[11] and helped the company, which saw its stock price fall to below one dollar after the subprime mortgage crisis,[12] resurge by offering subprime lending.[12] He served as Chairman of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC from 2015 to May, 2016.

In January 2017 Fortress announced the creation of an eSports (professional video gaming) team called FlyQuest. The team currently has a League of Legends team that competes in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS).[13]

Springleaf Financial Services[edit]

Edens, who runs Fortress’s private equity business, was the catalyst at Fortress behind the purchase of subprime lender Springleaf Financial Services—then known as AIG's American General Finance.[14] which made Fortress the Springleaf's majority stakeholder. By 2015 the value of Springleaf Holdings Inc. had ballooned to "$3.5 billion — putting the firm’s gain at more than 27 times Fortress’s original investment of $124 million in 2010." Edens was heralded as the "new king of subprime lending" by The Wall Street Journal.[12][15] Edens is chairman of the subprime lender Springleaf Financial Services—formerly known as AIG's American General Finance.[14]Fortress acquired 80% of Springleaf in August 2010 for $125 million and used Springleaf and Nationstar to "build out a financial-services business within its private-equity unit, which manages $14.3 billion in assets."[14]

Nationstar[edit]

Edens' is chairman of Nationstar Mortgage, formerly known as Centex Home Equity Company, LLC, a subprime home equity mortgage lender, which was acquired by Fortress for $575 million in 2006.[16][17] In 2005 Centex was "operating in major U.S. markets in 25 states and delivered more than 33,000 homes in the United States."[17] In 2014 Edens' connection to Nationstar Mortgage was cited by opponents of a proposed public-financing deal for the construction of a new arena the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center. They advocated for more public resources to rehabilitate foreclosed homes managed by Nationstar.[18][15]

Milwaukee Bucks[edit]

In 2014 Edens and Marc Lasry purchased the Bucks from Herb Kohl for $550 million, promising to keep the team in Wisconsin and build a new arena to replace the BMO Harris Bradley Center.[1][19]

Personal life[edit]

Edens and his wife Lynn have four children. Youngest daughter Mallory received significant, controversial media attention following her appearance as the Milwaukee Bucks' team representative at the 2014 NBA Draft lottery.[20][21] His hobbies include horse jumping and mountain climbing.[22]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Edens

Welcome to the Club, Wes.  Make us feel proud again.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Long time lurker, first time poster.  As excited as I was to hear about the take over, Wes Edens name being attached to it is scary.  He is one of the owners that took over the Bucks, and I have been a life long fan of them as well.  Not sure if it is all his doing, but the management of the Bucks is sketchy to say the least.  The first action of the owners was to hire Jason Kidd (who was a friend of theirs) without working through their GM.  Kidd was a disaster and they had to fire him a few years later.  They also fired the GM and the search for a new GM was a disaster because the owners couldn't come to a unanimous decision on a candidate they wanted, so they hired an internal guy that didn't even interview and is now in waaaay over his head.  If the previous regime would not have drafted Giannis, the Bucks would be in the cellar of the NBA because of management.

Hopefully, Sawiris is going to be making all of the calls or maybe Wes is a victim of the other owners, but his involvement makes me very nervous.

On a more positive note, his daughter, Mallory is a smokeshow

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

as i put in the take over thread he's the one thats settling any nerves i've got

owns NBA team the Milwaukee bucks, currently finishing their new stadium, has 4 stadium partners and is in talks for naming rights, i think this will be the guy with the little black book who brings in genuine partners

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Not a basketball fan but Bucks are good or bad. Anybody know? 

They are slightly above average, will make the play offs but have no real chance of getting far.

They have one very good young player in Giannis Antetokounmpo and if they can build a better team around him they can move up to the next level, if he was to leave right now they would be screwed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Not a basketball fan but Bucks are good or bad. Anybody know? 

They've made a turnaround since he came in. Although they are by no means a powerhouse.

Made the play off's 3 out of 4 seasons and increased the season ticket sales a huge amount apparently.

They are moving into a new stadium as well soon.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â