How The Celtics Buyer Got Rich

Forbes

A Boston-area native and Ivy League soccer player who grew up a Celtics fan, William Chisholm has spent more than two decades working out of the limelight, buying and selling software firms—and making a killing.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2025/03/22/the-little-known-billionaire-buying-the-boston-celtics/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how the Celtics buyer got rich.

00:05As we first told you last week, William Bill Chisholm just clinched the biggest pro sports

00:11deal in history, leading a group of investors with an agreement to buy the NBA's Boston

00:15Celtics for $6.1 billion.

00:20Chisholm and his co-investors are buying the defending NBA champions from Boston's Grousbeck

00:24family, who led the purchase of the Celtics for $360 million in 2002, and have overseen

00:30the team as its value has soared.

00:33Forbes valued the Celtics at $6 billion in October, making Ervin Grousbeck and the family

00:38billionaires, worth $2.2 billion.

00:42So how did this little-known private equity executive pull it off?

00:46Mainly through decades of under-the-radar dealmaking—buying, improving, and selling

00:51enterprise software companies for sometimes outsized profits.

00:56The Dartmouth and Wharton school grad had been running a small venture capital firm

01:00when, in 2002, Silicon Valley billionaire Romesh Wadhwani brought him on as his senior

01:06investment partner at a new software-focused private equity firm, Symphony Technology Group,

01:11that was initially funded with Wadhwani's money.

01:14Wadhwani earned this money through the sale in 2000 of a software firm he founded, Aspect

01:19Development, to i2 Technologies for $9.3 billion in stock.

01:25Over the next 15 years, Wadhwani tells Forbes, Symphony invested $1.6 billion of capital

01:31and returned $10 billion to investors.

01:35The firm bought middle-market software companies, improved their operations while shunning the

01:39use of excessive debt, and sold them for many multiples of what they paid.

01:44Symphony started four companies and purchased 21 others.

01:48A signature deal was when it picked up market research firm Information Resources, later

01:53named IRI and now called Sarkana, for less than $120 million in 2003 and sold most of

02:00it at a $1 billion valuation in 2011.

02:04In 2017, Wadhwani wanted to switch his focus, so he retired as CEO of Symphony Technology

02:10Group to launch an AI investing firm.

02:13Chisholm then took the top job and rebranded Symphony as STG Partners.

02:19It now has $11.7 billion in assets under management.

02:23Chisholm, who is 56 years old, is the principal owner of the firm, with more than 50% according

02:29to securities filings.

02:31Peter Schill Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs that buys pieces of other private equity

02:36firms, invested $60 million into the business in 2021 for a minority stake.

02:43Forbes calculates that Chisholm is worth north of $3 billion, up from an earlier estimate

02:47of at least $1 billion.

02:50The upward revision is based on additional information that led to a higher estimated

02:54value of STG Partners, of which Chisholm owns an estimated 60% stake.

03:00He owns at least four homes and apartments in California and New York City that are worth

03:04an estimated $30 million, plus a home on Nantucket, according to the Boston Globe.

03:09A spokesperson for Chisholm declined to comment on his fortune.

03:13The NBA requires that the principal owner of a team own at least 15% of it, so Chisholm

03:18will likely be putting down at least $915 million for his stake.

03:22But he may not have to put that entire amount in right away, since the purchase is a two-stage process.

03:29Irving Grousbeck's son, Wick Grousbeck, is staying on as CEO and governor of the Celtics

03:34through the 2027-2028 season, when the second part of the Celtics' sale will close.

03:40Grousbeck said in a statement announcing the deal that Bill's

03:44"...love for the team and the city of Boston, along with his chemistry with the rest of

03:48the Celtics' leadership, make him a natural choice to be the next governor and controlling

03:52owner of the team.

03:54I know he appreciates the importance of the Celtics and burns with a passion to win on

03:58the court while being totally committed to the community."

04:02Chisholm himself, a Georgetown, Massachusetts native, told ESPN that he attended his first

04:07Celtics game on his seventh birthday, adding,

04:11"...I've been a rabid fan ever since.

04:13I bleed green.

04:14I love the Celtics."

04:17For full coverage, check out Kerry A. Dolan's piece on Forbes.com.

04:22This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:25Thanks for tuning in.

04:32For more information visit www.forbes.com

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