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Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes becomes the first Aussie to own an NBA team
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has become the first Australian to own an NBA basketball team after buying a minority stake in the Utah Jazz.
Cannon-Brookes, 41, who made his fortune after co-founding software firm Atlassian, joins other technology entrepreneurs venturing into sport such as Microsoft’s Steve Balmer – who bought the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Sydneysider bought into the team in a deal with the Miller family, who have owned it for 35 years, along with two other tech company owners in a deal reported to be worth $2billion.
Cannon-Brookes (right) with Atalassian co-founder Scott Farquhar (left) and Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith (centre) who brought Cannon-Brookes into the Utah Jazz deal
Superstar Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (pictured) who in his rookie season was named in the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest
‘I am super excited and stoked to become part of the ownership group for the Utah Jazz with two awesome friends,’ Cannon-Brookes told the Saturday Telegraph.
His part of the deal is set to be worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which, for the keen basketball fan, is money well spent.
When his friend Ryan Smith, founder of Qualtrics, called him and said he was buying into the Jazz and he could get in on the deal, Cannon-Brookes revealed he jumped at the chance.
‘I said ‘f*** yeah followed by ‘I have to check with my wife’… but she was good about it, she knows how passionate I am about basketball and the Jazz in particular.’
The deal also means they own the Jazz’s home stadium Vivent Smart Home Arena.
‘So I could pop down and shoot some hoops on a Tuesday morning,’ Cannon-Brookes said.
The Tesla driving Cannon-Brookes played basketball in high school and had at one time wanted to play professionally.
When he was cut from his high school basketball team his ambitions turned to tech.
He could not complain of his eventual career as software CEO with Atlassian a wild success, affording Cannon-Brookes the opportunity to branch out into other ventures.
Real-estate has been a big one, having personally forked out $250million in the last few years alone.
He and his wife Annie purchased the $100million Point Piper property named Fairwater in September 2018, which was formerly owned by Lady Mary Fairfax.
Atlassian co-founders Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (right) pictured with their partners
The Atlassian co-founders purchased two adjacent Sydney properties in recent years worth nearly $200million
It is the most expensive house ever sold in Australia – and happens to be next to a property owned by his Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.
The software mogul also bought another neighbouring house for $12million in 2019.
More recently he purchased the former mansion of Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall, called Casa Paloma, in Newport, which was a record for Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Earlier this year Atalassian also unveiled plans to build a $1billion tower in Sydney’s CBD as part of a joint venture with the NSW Government.
The 180-metre-tall building with 40 storeys will overlook Sydney’s Central Station and be the tallest ‘hybrid timber’ tower in the world once completed.
The tower is the intended new headquarters of the city’s tech precinct, which will house up to 4,000 tech workers and be completed by 2025.
Casa Paloma (pictured) in Sydney Northern Beaches was bought by Mike Cannon-Brookes and was previously owned by Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall
The duo started the Atlassian Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of their company, in an attempt to give back to the community
Atlassian was worth $50billion in 2019 – not bad for a company started by two university mates who ‘didn’t want to get real jobs’.
Cannon-Brookes’ grew up in Sydney, his father the head of a law firm spent thousands of dollars sending him to an elite boarding school.
He met Farquhar through the University of New South Wales’ elite co-op scholarship program but found university ‘boring’ and dropped out of the program.
The pair registered Atlassian as a business in 2001, and established a modest Sydney office in Kent Street office in October 2002.
The company’s main product Jira – a project management and bug tracking software suite – became the gold standard, being used by the likes of NASA and eBay.
They now have nine offices in six countries: Amsterdam, Austin, New York, San Francisco and Mountain View, California, Manila, Yokohama, Bangalore, and Sydney.
Mike Cannon-Brookes pictured with wife Annie Todd has bought a minority stake in the Utah Jazz NBA team
Source: Daily Mail Australia | World News
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