Washington Commanders: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Was Outbid By Josh Harris For Ownership, Per Report

Washington Commanders: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Was Outbid By Josh Harris For Ownership, Per Report

Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos was reportedly outbid for NFL ownership of the Washington Commanders. The new report appears to upend the narrative surrounding Bezos and the Commanders that was relayed to the public last year.

There have been rumors Bezos has been interested in owning an NFL team for several years. His name was linked as a potential bidder for the Commanders when Dan Snyder put the team up for sale last year.

Dan Snyder had issues with Jeff Bezos

Per an article in The Athletic in February 2023 by Ben Standig and Daniel Kaplan, Bezos was “barred” by Snyder from bidding on the Commanders due to Snyder’s feud on the Washington Post’s coverage of the team:

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is not allowed to bid for the Washington Commanders, the team’s banker, Bank of America, has told the billionaire, a person close to Bezos who was briefed on the sale process confirmed to The Athletic.

The person added that Bezos being barred from bidding has been a reality for months.

Bezos owns the Washington Post, which published a series of stories documenting a culture of sexual harassment at the team that ultimately helped build the pressure to sell. But beyond that, team owner Daniel Snyder has long felt, those close to him have said over the years, that the newspaper has endeavored to oust him from the NFL.

Bezos has come under scrutiny in recent days

Per the article, Snyder was reserving the right to keep ownership of the Commanders if a bid did not reach his desired price.

Ironically, a twist in the Commanders sale saga has leaked because of Bezos and the Washington Post. The newspaper’s prestige has come under fire recently because of ethical concerns related to the hiring of William Lewis as publisher and CEO. (It has been announced since that Lewis will not join the Washington Post.)

Josh Harris outbid Bezos for the Washington Commanders

An inside look into Bezos’ life in Washington provided this scoop by Martha Muir and Anna Nicolaou in the Financial Times; Harris outbid Bezos for ownership of the Commanders:

Bezos went so far as to put an ownership group together with music mogul Jay-Z to acquire the Commanders, but was outbid by fellow billionaire Josh Harris, co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo.

At the time, some US media outlets reported that the team’s then owner, Dan Snyder, blocked Bezos’s bid because of his ownership of the Post — which almost single-handedly forced Snyder to sell, after it revealed the team allegedly tolerated pervasive sexual harassment and employee abuse.

People briefed on the process, however, insist Bezos was simply outbid by Harris, who acquired the team for $6bn. “I don’t think Snyder would have not sold to them if Jeff came in with a bid of $7bn,” said a person involved in the process.

Bezos had the money to outbid Harris. Forbes lists Bezos as the third wealthiest person in the world, worth over $194 billion. For whatever reason, Bezos chose not to outbid Harris for ownership of the Commanders. Maybe he didn’t feel like giving an extra billion to someone who didn’t respect him.

Bezos will get another chance to bid for ownership of an NFL team in the future. He’ll then have to decide if an overpay is worth the luxury of owning a league team. Like he’s learning with the Washington Post, some investments are more about status than anything else.

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