Broadcom’s Nicholas Is Not Willing to Be a Sports Czar

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 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 complete ownership of both the Angels and Ducks.

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

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

Tony Tavares, the 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 extreme-sports enthusiast, 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.

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