Ballmer SLAM-DUNKS $2 BEEELLLION bid for LA Clippers

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer might not be in the software business anymore, but he has reportedly still found a way to one-up longtime rival Larry Ellison: by outbidding the Oracle tycoon for a major US sports franchise in the form of the LA Clippers. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Ballmer has won a …

[Anonymous Coward]

The LA Clippers, coming to last place real soon. Ballmer is too much of a control freak for anyone to actually run or coach the team without Ballmer being directly involved in every decision. How to make a team "worth" $2 billion worth far less, have Ballmer own it.

He should try the wrestling business, there you can throw chairs and it is all part of the show.

[Justin Pasher]

Wait... You think that the owner of a team can't be a control freak that wants to do things his way for the better of the team? Just look at how well it's work for the Dallas Cowboys.

Oh wait....

[frank ly]

In my world ....

... I dream of having a bigger/better car than my neighbour.

[ByeLaw101]

Re: In my world ....

bigger/better car! pfff... we don't have cars down our street, I want a bigger and better bike than my neighbour, one with TWO wheels!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reality tv I'd consider watching

Would be a Big Brother series solely populated by billionaire egomaniacs (and Donald Trump, whose ego probably exceeds even the actual billionaires) without their staff or chequebooks.

I suspect one would eventually end up eating the rest.

I'm not sure why the first comment got me thinking about this, but it did.

[fishman]

In the Clippers arena

In the Clippers arena, all of the chairs are bolted to the floor.

[Red Bren]

There's going to be some changes

Each basket will take up 50% of the screen court and the familiar "ball" interface will be replaced by the players touching each other. No one understands how that will work in a non-contact sport.

[Don Dumb]

Non-Contact?

@Ren Bren a non-contact sport- I don't know where the idea comes from that everyone seems to think basketball is a non-contact sport. I used to get injured much more from contact in basketball than I did playing rugby. There's loads of contact in basketball, you just have to keep from handling someone when they are shooting and you can't just clatter your way through people who are standing their ground (which you can't in football either)

[Anonymous Coward]

This makes two

If BULLmer buys the team it would make two arse clown owners.

[MJI]

I thought of CA-Clipper

Now that was good!

[8Ace]

Basketball

Repetitive, dull, each game looks very much like the last -just like Windows

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Basketball

Now I realise why he had to leave - all that throwing chairs when he was at Microsoft finally broke Windows.

Anyway, fair play to him - he's used his own money for the deal, unlike the leveraged deals going through elsewhere.

[The last doughnut]

Clippers

So can someone explain the name of the team/franchise for us UK citizens?

Are their roots in a barbershop union? Or bus conductors perhaps? More to the point, is Ballmy missing his old chum from Windoze days, good ol' Clippy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Clippers

The Clippers were originally in San Diego, a port city and were suitably nautically named after the "clipper ships" which were extremely fast sailing ships that traveled from the U.S. East Coast around Cape Horn to California.

But now that Ballmer is buying them, it would be great to see Clippy brought back as the new team mascot, with some guy in a Clippy costume performing trampoline-assisted basketball dunks during halftimes!

And I guess this thankfully ends Donald Sterling's "I'll fight to keep my team until the end" posturing. "I'll fight til' the en....Oh wait, did you just say $2 BILLION?! OK, here are the keys..."

[jelabarre59]

Re: Clippers

Nope, the new team logo will be the BSOD....

[John Brown (no body)]

I read the title and sub-head...

...and assumed MS were buying up an old DBase clone from years ago.

[MJI]

Re: I read the title and sub-head...

Another non believer.

Clipper was a fantastic tool, a geat way of making DOS database applications, which were fast to use, fast to write, reliable and flexible.

As to clone, no, just the natural progression of XBase.

Clipper (or CA-Clipper) was XBase, tons of tools, some excellent replacable database drivers, and still many programs in use.

All those great addons, Blinker, Funky (sp), Novlib, Advantage XBase Server, things like this made for some pretty powerful applications.

We were using serial comms libraries, Netware task libraries, client server libraries, lots of links to C as well, with our own C code.

Clipper was the pinnacle of Xbase not just a clone

[dorsetknob]

New Team Strip

" As soon as sale goes through there will be a change of team strip"

Out with the current shirts

New shirts are Microsoft Blue with white writing ( error code 0x80070643 )

[Ted Treen]

I can't grasp...

...why our rebel colonial cousins get so het up about basketball and baseball.

On our civilised side of the pond, we leave these games to schoolgirls and call them by their proper names, viz Netball and Rounders.

Perhaps after all, that nice Mr. Ballmer really is a big girl's blouse...

[cordwainer 1]

This is GREAT news for anyone who bets on sports....

Just put your money on any team playing the Clippers. It's a sure thing :-D

[Amorous Cowherder]

Good luck to him, as my old man occasionally still reminds me ( even though my 43 ), "Not telling you what to do son, it's your money!".