Here’s Who Is Behind The Dark Horse Bid For Chelsea FC

In the last 24 hours, Stephen Pagliuca, the co-chair of Bain Capital and part-owner of the Boston Celtics, has added some serious firepower to his effort to buy Premier League club Chelsea FC. Multiple reports emerged Wednesday that Larry Tanenbaum, who serves as chairman of the NBA’s board of governors and owns stakes in several North American sports teams, and Eduardo Saverin, a cofounder of Facebook (now Meta), were joining Pagliuca’s bid for the club, currently owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

With four finalists remaining in a race too close to call, Pagliuca has emerged as a dark horse candidate, and his new partners should enhance his chances. Here’s a look at what we know about this team of bidders.

Stephen Pagliuca

Pagliuca joined private equity and investment firm Bain Capital in 1989 and now serves as co-chair. He bought a minority stake in the NBA’s Boston Celtics in 2002. The team’s valuation has since grown eight-fold, to $3.55 billion, and Forbes estimates that Pagliuca has a 10% stake. The Duke and Harvard graduate also owns around 40% of Italy’s Serie A soccer club Atalanta, worth an estimated $175 million. If Pagliuca were to succeed in acquiring Chelsea, he would have to divest his Atalanta stake since individuals cannot own multiple UEFA Champions League competitors.

Larry Tanenbaum

Tanenbaum, who built a career in civil engineering construction, has become a powerful figure in the sports world, serving as the National Basketball Association board of governors’ chairman, a co-chair of the Toronto 2026 FIFA World Cup and a board member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The Canadian businessman has bet on sports for the past two decades, and owns a 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment through his holding company Kilmer Group. MLSE owns several professional teams, with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA’s Raptors and Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC among them. Tanenbaum also invests in real estate, infrastructure and private companies such as Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited, food and beverage firm Cypress Five Star Inc. and Fornebu Lumber. On Wednesday, Pagliuca said in a statement that Tanenbaum would be “co-managing partner” of the Chelsea bid.

Eduardo Saverin

Immortalized by Andrew Garfield’s portrayal in the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network, Saverin rose to prominence after cofounding Facebook (now called Meta) with Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. While he doesn’t have the sports experience of Pagliuca or Tanenbaum, Meta has made Saverin a very rich man. Forbes estimates he’s worth $12.1 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, mainly derived from a small yet valuable stake in Meta. Saverin’s wife, Elaine, is part of the bid as well.

Bob Iger, Peter Guber And More

Pagliuca has reportedly added others to his star-studded group of bidders. The Financial Times and the Associated Press report that longtime Hollywood producer and Sony Pictures head Peter Guber—who owns stakes in MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and MLS’s Los Angeles FC—has joined Pagliuca’s bidding team, as have Bob Iger, the former head of Disney, and his journalist wife, Willow Bay. Billionaire venture capital investor Jim Breyer, one of the earliest backers of Facebook, also confirmed that he is part of Pagliuca’s team of bidders.

Raine Group, the advisor handling the transaction, is expected to present a final bid to the U.K. government on April 18. A representative of the Pagliuca bid confirmed the participation of all the members listed above, as well as B Capital cofounder Raj Ganguly, investor John Burbank and serial tech entrepreneur Div Turakhia.