Penguins put up for sale for $750M.

If that deal goes through, it looks like Lemieux is going to be doing incredibly well for himself from what I can gather. Some quick research and math shows:

  1. Lemieux was part of the purchasing group that bought the Penguins in 1999. At the time, the team owed him about $32m. He forgave $7m of the debt and accepted the other $25m as equity in the team.

  2. The team was purchased in 1999 for $107m. This would put Lemieux at a 23.4% stake assuming that $107m was for a 100% of the franchise.

  3. Assuming Lemieux still has a 23.4% stake in the franchise, his portion of the $750m sale would be $175m. Not bad for what can be thought of as "delayed payment" for his time with the team.

  4. Franchise value growth from 1999 to the current 2015 asking price is 601%. Annualized, the growth is 13.0% per year over 16 years. For comparison, annual inflation was about 2.4%.

  5. Forbes currently values the team at $565m, which is still 428% total growth and 9.5% annualized growth. Lemieux would have $132m in equity in the team, which is quite respectable.

Random sources and resources:

HFboards post about Lemieux's stake

Inflation calculator

Forbes' valuation of the Penguins

A June 2015 article discussing a potential sale (Note: Google cache version because the article is behind a paywall.)

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