Broadcom Boss Wants Little to Do With Teams

Henry T. Nicholas III, the high-tech billionaire long courted by the Walt Disney Co. as a buyer of the Anaheim Angels and Mighty Ducks, said Friday that he is more interested in acquiring broadcast rights for potential Internet ventures than he is in becoming a major investor in the teams.

“We have looked at the books,” Nicholas said. “Disney has done everything it could do to make a very impressive series of properties an asset. I’m very impressed with what they created. If I was a different man living in a different time and I wanted to buy a baseball team, I’d probably want to buy this one. But I don’t.

“I don’t want to buy this team outright, and I don’t want to run it.”

Although Nicholas, co-founder of Irvine-based computer chip powerhouse Broadcom Corp., insisted he never would have made a majority investment in the teams, his group negotiated a potential purchase for months.

Initially, Nicholas said his investment group talked to Disney strictly about securing media rights for the Angels’ interactive properties. However, he said, Disney pushed for a deal for full ownership of both the Angels and Ducks.

While Disney begins the search for another buyer, Nicholas said he would still be interested in making a minority investment.

If Nicholas’ group indeed reviewed the Angels’ financial records, Disney could get into trouble with major league baseball, which forbids sellers from opening their books to potential buyers without permission.

Tony Tavares, president of Disney’s Anaheim Sports division, said Friday that Disney had not requested such permission and had not shared confidential financial information. He also said he had not heard from Nicholas or any representative Friday.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig did not return a call seeking comment.

In Friday’s Times, Tavares said he believed any deal with the Nicholas group was “dead,” citing a prolonged silence from the potential buyers.

“The deal is not dead,” Nicholas said, “but it’s not proceeding at the velocity that Disney would like.”

The deal stalled, Nicholas suggested, in the absence of a majority owner with a sports background, someone with the experience to assure baseball and hockey officials the teams would be soundly run and assure investors that sports would not distract Nicholas and Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli from their highly competitive business. The investor group is believed to have asked Tony Guanci, who runs the Newport Beach-based Sports Facilities Development Consultants, to help find such an owner or ownership group.

“There are a couple of groups who we may partner with,” Nicholas said. “But those deals and those conversations are far from being concluded. If anything ever does get done, we’ll have next to zero input on running the teams.”

Nicholas, an enthusiast of so-called extreme sports, said he did not need to own the Angels and Ducks to quench his competitive thirst.

“I never had a desire to run a professional sports team,” Nicholas said. “The fastest-paced sport there is is running Broadcom right now.”

Nicholas, Samueli and Marvin Winkler, chairman of Irvine surfwear company Gotcha International, are partners in Broadband Interactive Group, which aims to provide popular sports content to drive demand for the coming wave of interactive technology. Computers and television could merge into one device thanks to a small box powered by Broadcom computer chips.

Because the slow pace of baseball would allow viewers time between pitches to click on various camera angles, call up statistics or order tickets and merchandise, Winkler and his Broadcom partners considered the sport ideal for their interactive ventures.

Nicholas, Samueli and Winkler also are among the partners in the Gotcha Glacier, a four-story indoor snow and surf park proposed for the parking lot outside Edison Field, the home of the Angels. While stadium lease restrictions would allow the Glacier partners to make more money if they also owned the Angels, plans to develop the Glacier are not expected to be affected by the possible termination of talks to buy the sports teams.

Disney reported the Ducks lost $8 million last year and claimed the Angels lost more than $50 million over the last three seasons. The last-place Angels are in disarray as well, with General Manager Bill Bavasi resigning under heavy fire Friday, four weeks after Manager Terry Collins did the same thing.

Yet Disney should find no shortage of potential buyers. In fact, in the weeks since word surfaced of Nicholas’ interest, Disney has received numerous inquiries.

Before selling the Angels to Disney, the Autry family had negotiated with former baseball commissioner and Los Angeles Olympic chief Peter Ueberroth. Joel Rubenstein, Ueberroth’s business partner, said Friday the men had not approached Disney--or been approached by Disney--about buying the Angels and Ducks. However, Rubenstein would not rule out that possibility.

“We have a lot of interest in sports,” Rubenstein said.

Andy Dolich, who led an investment group whose bid to buy the Oakland Athletics was tabled two weeks ago by major league owners, suggested some members of his group could soon pursue the Angels and Mighty Ducks.

Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson, a former Angel and a member of the Dolich group, said last week he would be interested in joining an Angels bid. Dolich said the Oakland bidders would not stay together unless current A’s owners extend the sale agreement and major league owners promise eventual approval of his group, but those conditions are unlikely to be met.

“Our focus is on completing the process in Oakland,” Dolich said. “We have had discussions about other sports and entertainment opportunities, but in no specific fashion. There are a number of individuals in our group whose interest lies only in Oakland and Northern California.”

In the meantime, analysts that follow Broadcom cheered Nicholas’ pledge to lead his company, not the Angels and Ducks.

“Clearly, the fact they are talking about this as a peripheral thing rather than a hands-on thing is a positive for Broadcom,” said Arun Veerapan of BancBoston Robertson Stephens.

“Broadcom has been known for its flawless execution. Any chance, however remote, that the management would be distracted would not be good for them. I think this is an excellent outcome.”

In any case, said Allen Leibovitch of the IDC semiconductor research group in Mountain View, the technology Nicholas and his partners hoped to exploit by investing in the Angels is not yet widely available.

“It wouldn’t have bought them anything right now, except the publicity, which they seem to have gotten anyway,” Leibovitch said.

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Times staff writers Chris Foster and Ross Newhan contributed to this report.