Report: Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia to buy Suns from Robert Sarver
Mat Ishbia, 42, the billionaire owner of Pontiac-based United Wholesale Mortgage and a former Michigan State basketball player who was part of the 2000 national championship, is finalizing the purchase of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, according to multiple reports.
“BREAKING: Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia completes purchase of Phoenix Suns, sources tell ESPN,” Wojnarowski tweeted. “The deal, which is expected to close in the near future, would end the tumultuous tenure of owner Robert Sarver.”
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who first reported the deal, the purchase price is around $4 billion, which would make it the highest price in league history. The Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA are also part of the deal.
Detroit-born former Microsoft CEO and Birmingham Detroit Country Day graduate Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017 for $2 billion.
The Free Press reached out to a representative for Ishbie, but has not yet heard back.
The Associated Press reports that the transaction is expected to take weeks to complete. Ishbia will now be subject to the NBA’s vetting process. Once that process is complete, the sale will need to be approved by the league’s board of governors. The board is not scheduled to meet again until March, although it could meet virtually if the vetting process is successfully completed beforehand.
Ishbia had been looking for a professional sports team for some time. He said last month that he was considering a bid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders and reportedly tried to buy the Denver Broncos in the spring.
Current Suns owner Robert Sarver is virtually forced to sell the organization after a series of reports were released last year that detailed a toxic workplace culture the owner fostered over the years, including racist and sexist comments and behavior toward employees.
In September, the NBA suspended Sarver and fined him $10 million after a league investigation found him responsible for “misconduct in the workplace and organizational deficiencies.” Later that month, Sarver announced his desire to sell the team after purchasing it for $401 million in 2004.
Ishbia’s UWM recently overtook Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage of Dan Gilbert to become the nation’s largest mortgage lender by volume.
While Ishbia’s father, Jeffrey, started what became UWM in 1986, almost all of the company’s growth occurred after Mat became CEO and took day-to-day control in 2013.
UWM is still less well-known than Rocket Mortgage because it does not provide direct-to-consumer mortgages. Instead, its business model is to underwrite loans for independent mortgage brokers, known as “wholesale” loans.
UWM went public in January 2021 by merging with a blank check company known as a SPAC owned by Alec Gores, older brother of Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores.
Pistons great Isiah Thomas is also on the nine-member UWM board.
Last year, Ishbia donated $32 million to MSU for a new football building. Then in the fall, he helped extend the contract of football coach Mel Tucker, making him one of the highest-paid in the sport.
The purchase continues Ishbie’s rivalry with MSU alum Gilbert, who has been the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers since 2005.
For years, Ishbia has been vying for Gilbert’s title as the owner of the nation’s largest mortgage lender, ahead of all the big banks, such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
His UWM finally surpassed Gilbert’s Rocket in the third quarter of this year, reporting nearly $33.5 billion in mortgage loans to Rocket’s $25.6 billion.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that Ishbia will bring in his brother Justin as the lead investor for the sale.
Ishbia is a 1998 graduate of Birmingham Seaholm High School and was a member of the MSU basketball team from 1998-2002. Under Tom Izzo, the program reached three consecutive Final Fours (1999-2001) and won its second-ever college basketball national championship in 2000.
Ishbia was a third-string quarterback who walked on the team but earned a scholarship his senior year and stayed on as a graduate assistant coach for another year.
“Had a great phone call with fellow Spartan Mat Ishbia congratulating him on buying the Phoenix Suns,” Magic Johnson, another Michigan graduate, tweeted Tuesday. “He’s going to do great things not just for the Suns organization, but for the entire league. All the other 29 NBA teams better watch out because Mat is a winner!”
