It’s apparently a week for wealthy business moguls to buy sports clubs: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who is among the richest people in the world, is acquiring a minority equity stake in Liverpool Football Club, a team in the English Premiere League.
Fenway Sports Group, the majority owner of Liverpool FC, announced Friday that it sold a piece of the club’s ownership to K5 Sports, an investment consortium for which Bezos is the lead investor.
It’s the first time Bezos is investing in a sports team. Bezos, 62, currently ranks as the third-wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of nearly $272 billion (trailing only Elon Musk and Google’s Larry Page), according to Forbes. Among Bezos’ business interests, he is the owner of the Washington Post and space-rocket company Blue Origin.
Earlier this week, former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, the younger brother of White House adviser Jared Kushner, announced a deal to buy the Los Angeles Lakers that is worth $12.5 billion.
FSG is also selling a minority equity stake in Liverpool FC to 1892 Holdings, a consortium led and managed by U.K.-based investor Amit Bhatia. Financial terms of the deals weren’t disclosed. FSG, which also owns the Boston Red Sox, continues to retain majority ownership and operational control of Liverpool FC.
