Youth, College and Pro PEU Sports

This summer I saw numerous stories about the greed and leverage boys targeting sports, professional, college and youth sports.  Youth sports?  Is nothing safe from the clutches of private equity underwriters (PEU)?  Apparently not.

Two PEUs are behind youth oriented Unrivaled Sports, Josh Harris of Apollo Global and David Blitzer of Blackstone.  They used their personal wealth accumulated from their respective firms to fund the venture.

College sports is high on the list for new PEU investment.  A legal settlement on top of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals for players will have many college teams looking for a PEU partner.  

The greed and leverage boys love secure revenue streams and price inelastic environments.  Remember these guys graduated from at least one institution of higher learning.  Many have buildings in their name from funding big capital projects.  

It will be interesting to see how they split up the sports industry without encouraging real competition for prime assets.  It used to be club deals, then it was speaking code and sending messages through the media.  

Who might approach your alma mater for a cut of their ticket/box seat revenue or a slice of a student's NIL money?

Also, the NFL just approved allowing PEUs to own up to 10% of any team.  Other leagues invited the barbarians in years ago.

What happens when billionaire owners add billionaire PEU founders to their ownership groups?  How fast will politicians funnel public money to team infrastructure?  

Remember in PEU land, everything is a secret, from fees to the calculation of returns to whether they have an undisclosed stake in the failure of an affiliate.  It's all proprietary information, protected by non-disclosure agreements.

I hate to see these shuckers wreck yet another industry.  They can't help it.  It's the way they compete.  Tilt the playing field, then fee, fee, fee.

Greed is not a role model.  Ask the parents who had their workplace decimated by PEU ownership.  Unfortunately, so many have grown up in a world dominated by PEUs (the last two decades).  That may explain this: 

Just because politicians Red and Blue love PEU does not mean I have to.  I vote no and no and no again.  

Monetizing Public Service: The AI Way

Vanderbilt University announced the launch of the Institute of National Security in May 2024. Their press release stated:

The founding director and leader of the institute will be retired General Paul M. Nakasone, who has served as commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency, and chief of the Central Security Service.

The institute will address:

...the pressing need to address emerging threats from a wide perspective—encompassing not only battlefield innovations but also disruptions to society, such as election meddling, pandemics and ransomware attacks—during unprecedented times.

The institute, expected to launch in fall 2024, will draw on Vanderbilt’s expertise in fields such as engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, neuroscience, the humanities, biological sciences, emergency medicine, nursing, law and policy.

May to September... I'd say the General's plate is full.  It got fuller in June with an appointment to the OpenAI board of directors.  It overflowed in August with his joining Ballistic Ventures as a strategic advisor.  

General Nakasone is the latest to garner multiple, high paying full time positions.  At least two of the groups are buying influence.

Polticians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Public service is now private enrichment.

Update 9-11-24:  Techbro God Eric Schmidt, one of many (Peter Thiel. Elon Musk), revealed the extent that AI plans to appropriate intellectual property (a la China) and the huge sums required for a bunch of connected machines to think (within boundaries).  That money is needed to buy the equipment, stash them in data centers, train them and provide the gobs of electricity needed.  

He revealed techbro gods were behind the CHIPS Act because even though they hate paying taxes, they love Uncle Sam's wallet.    

Schmidt has been a regular at annual meetings of global tamperers, (Davos, Bilderberg, Milken).  These people are shameless.  I can't wait to find out how taxpayers are subsidizing AI's Garbage in-Garbage out.  "We can't prevent the hallucination (within AI).  We can only minimize it." 

This citizen suggests we not waste the money or our energy resources so Techbro Gods can remake the earth in their distorted, disturbing image.

Sheehy Gets Double Blackstone Sponorship

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and increasingly more are one.  The latest greed and leverage boy to run for office is Tim Sheehy.    Fresh off a massive base wealth injection Sheehy is ready to join the U.S. Senate for the Red team.

Tim Sheehy founded Bridger Aerospace in 2014.  It merged with Jack Creek Investment Corporation, a blank check Cayman Islands exempted company.  

Stephen Schwarzman's Blackstone Group took a 20% stake in the merged company and received two board seats.

PEU legend Schwarzman went from sponsoring Bridger Aerospace to sponsoring its CEO for the U.S. Senate.  Sheehy's main clients are federal and state government agencies.  Schwarzman's $400,000 political donation is nearly Sheehy's 2021 CEO salary ($450,000).  Once Blackstone got involved Sheehy's pay exploded.

Fellow Blackstone co-founder Pete Peterson shifted from PEU religion to reducing government and balancing the federal budget.  Peterson's fellow PEUs hate paying taxes.  Both political parties promised to eliminate the widely hated preferred "carried interest" taxation, yet they failed to get together to do so under the last three US Presidents.  That's alot of Congresses.

Schwarzman and fellow Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein emerge from their glass towers and light around Capital Hill when a serious challenge is made at taking away their tax dodge.  Keeping carried interest is not enough.  The PEU boys always want more.   

My wise friend (who wanted me to note that he is not an expert) stated:

I was wondering if the taxes on non-realized gains was a wake up call for the guys borrowing against their portfolios hyper-inflated valuations in the debt markets to avoid taxes. We have seen this go on in the real estate market, the private equity market, the VC market, and who knows what else in the wealth management business. Our tax policy allows tax avoidance through this and these means. This also creates the wealth inequality and inflation in the system. None of these would be possible without a complicit federal reserve system. No one talks about this stuff though. If we are going to promote asset valuations as the economy then they should basically be willing to take a tax hit for the whole economy to sustain the fiscal budget to run the country. Otherwise they are using a subsidy guaranteed by all of us for their narrow interests. 

My friend can see the 3D chess game PEU billionaires are playing.  The board is invisible to most of us.  

The wake up call might have prompted Blackstone to reach into its CEO pool for a Senate candidate.  The PEU boys need more of their kind on the inside to craft billionaire advantaged tax policy.   

Peter Thiel sponsored J.D. Vance twice and is going for the trifecta.  Stephen Schwarzman is going for the double with Tim Sheehy.  I hope they both strike out.

Update 9-8-24:  My wise friend recently said this about Blackstone:

Don't you get a renewed sense of hope when the Blackstone Global Real Estate Co-head can get on CNBC and tell you how she is investing in the real estate data center market after walking away from hundreds of billions of dollars and obligations in the commercial real estate market.? The education all of us get from those that return the keys and kept the fees it's just so inspiring. The ability to bounce back after locking up investors in a falling market with false marks and yet still have the fortitude and their capital to reinvest in other ideas.

The PEU boys (and girls) are truly shameless.