Seattle Seahawks fans envisioning another tech billionaire as the new owner of the NFL team have a couple Silicon Valley-based names to consider. Or not.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been mentioned as potential suitors for the franchise, which was put up for sale in February by the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Front Office Sports reported Thursday that Zuckerberg and Cook are among at least four interested parties considering making offers for the team. They are the first serious names to emerge in a sale that could fetch upwards of $7 billion.
In a post on X, Dylan Byers of Puck said the report was not true and sources close to Cook and Zuckerberg said neither was interested in bidding for the Seahawks.
Reps for all of those involved declined to comment or could not be reached, including the Paul G. Allen estate and the bank handling the sale process, Front Office Sports said.
According to Forbes, Zuckerberg is worth $222 billion and Cook $2.8 billion.
Cook announced last week that he is stepping down as Apple CEO and will become executive chairman on Sept. 1.
The plan to sell the 50-year-old franchise is part of the long process of divesting many of the assets and investments that Allen made during his lifetime and direct all proceeds to philanthropy. Since his death, Allen’s estate has steadily moved to sell major assets, including real estate holdings and, more recently, advancing the sale process for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers.
Allen co-founded Microsoft with childhood friend Bill Gates, and the billionaire philanthropist bought the Seahawks in 1997 for approximately $200 million from previous owner Ken Behring. The purchase secured the team’s home in Seattle after Behring threatened a move to California. Allen ran the team until his death in 2018 at the age of 65 after he was diagnosed with a recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Gates has previously expressed no interest in owning the team, but the list of those who could includes many who made their fortunes in tech, from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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