Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
Bill Chisholm officially took over the Celtics on Tuesday after the sale of the team at an initial $6.1 billion valuation formally closed, and as part of the announcement, four previously unknown investors in the new ownership group were revealed.
The closing of the transaction was a formality after the NBA Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve the agreement last week.
Wyc Grousbeck will immediately cede the title of lead governor to Chisholm, despite his original plan to remain in control through the 2027–28 season. Grousbeck will become an alternate governor, alongside Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal—the world’s second-largest steel producer—who is contributing $1 billion to the transaction. Grousbeck will also be CEO, “running day to day operations with Chisholm and the existing basketball and business management teams” for an unspecified amount of time, according to a statement announcing the completion of the deal.
In the statement, four previously unknown investors in the Celtics were revealed: Andrew Bialecki, cofounder and CEO of marketing automation firm Klaviyo; Dom Ferrante, managing partner of The Ferrante Group, a Florida-based family office; Mario Ho, the son of the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho who cofounded and serves as co-CEO for esports company NIP Group; and Ian Loring, senior managing director of Texas-based private-equity firm Haveli Investments.
It had already been publicly known that the following people and companies would be part of the new ownership group: Robert Hale Jr., who was an existing minority owner of the Celtics; Bruce A. Beal Jr., president of Related Companies; and private-equity firm Sixth Street.
Notably absent from the list of people involved in the new ownership group is former minority owner Steve Pagliuca, who separately tried to buy the Celtics and expressed dismay with the deal to sell the Celtics to Chisholm in March via a fiery letter.
Pagliuca, Grousbeck’s longtime partner in owning the team and the former co-chairman of Bain Capital, issued a statement Tuesday voicing support for the new group. Pagliuca is now involved in a messy situation as he tries to buy the WNBA’s Sun and move them to Boston.
Pagliuca also noted he will retain an “investment interest” in the Celtics for the next three years; the deal is structured as a multi-part transaction under which existing minority owners have the ability to retain their positions until 2028. A source previously told Front Office Sports that those minority owners will get to sell their stakes for up to 20% more than the original deal price, in accordance with a revenue-based formula set by the league. When all is said and done, that will bring the final blended value of the deal close to $7.3 billion.
Chisholm, who before buying the Celtics was a little-known PE executive for Symphony Technology Group, inherits a much different-looking team from the roster when he agreed to the deal. Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, starters for the Celtics squad who won the 2024 NBA championship, have been shuffled out of Boston this summer as the franchise cuts salary in the wake of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear sustained during the playoffs.
Chisholm made the purchase in his personal capacity, not through Symphony Technology Group.
