Microsoft Corp founder Paul Allen is feeling lucky, and its not because of his remaining shares in the tech company giant, Microsoft.
On January 19, the Seattle Seahawks has won the 2014 National Football Conference Championship against the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 in Super Bowl Sunday. The winning team saw Allen, who is owner of the Seahawks, holding up the George Halas trophy to a cheering crowd.
Despite the fact that Allen's investment in Microsoft fared better in terms of simple change of value, Bloomberg said Allen lately has not been all about the money. After whittling his ownership in Microsoft from 28% to less than 2%, Allen was said to have used the money to discover life and take adventures. His acquisition of the professional football team in 1997, said the news agency, was done as a favor to his native city and out of a sense of duty.
Despite losing more than $8 billion initially, his ownership of the Seahawks has raked in television broadcast fees worth six times of what Allen had paid to acquire the company. On the other hand, Microsoft shares in the same period increased a little more than twice its value, as Microsoft has been struggling to regain a significant footing it once dominate.
Allen acquiring the Seahawks was actually orchestrated by local politicians desperate to keep the team from moving to California, said Bloomberg. He then shelled out $194 million for the football team franchise and another $130 million to build a new stadium for the team in Seattle. According to data compiled by the news agency, the Seahawks is now worth $1.25 billion.
On the other hand, New York sports media consultant Chris Bevilacqua said that investment in football teams is no longer considered a high-return investment. Bloomberg noted that this month, a federal judge has disapproved the National Football League's $914 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by a class of over 5,000 former players over future concussion claims.
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