Shaq’s Investment Wins

Shaquille O’Neal is joining Alkaline Water Co. as an equity partner, becoming the company’s largest shareholder as it attempts to turn around recent losses — the stock is down 62% since July.

O’Neal will join the board of advisers and receive roughly 7 million common shares — 5% to 6% — of the company over a three-year period.

The announcement comes just two months after the Hall of Famer co-founded Majority, an ad agency focused on diversity, and follows a string of other investments.

“Seventy-five percent of all athletes go broke two years after they’re playing,” he told Vanity Fair last year. “People said, ‘You gotta invest, you gotta know what you’re investing in.’”

O’Neal made an early investment in Google before it went public in 2004. He has also invested in Apple, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Ring, and PepsiCo — among many others. Other highlights on his resume:

• A SPAC he advises took fitness brand Beachbody public in a $3 billion merger.
• A minority stake in the Sacramento Kings.
• O’Neal also owns several franchises between Papa John’s and Auntie Anne’s, and once owned 155 Five Guys restaurants but sold his stake.

The four-time NBA champion has endorsed dozens of companies too, from IcyHot to Buick.

Shaq’s total earnings across his ventures aren’t clear, and the basketball star-turned-businessman intends to keep it that way. “My mother would be disappointed if I talk about numbers,” he’s said.