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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Jabara’s Good Timing on Padres Play; the Other OC Payday

Shady Canyon’s Gary Jabara hasn’t wasted any time in the hunt for new opportunities in the wake of the $1.1 billion sale of a chunk of his Mobilitie LLC’s cell phone towers to SBA Communications Corp. Timing will be a factor in his bid for the San Diego Padres, a deal that’s expected to include a stake in a Fox Sports cable channel and could end up in the neighborhood of $800 million. A winner might emerge from among three groups of bidders as early as this week, which could pave the way for an approval by fellow club owners in July. That could give a new owner time to get in sync with the front office in advance of the non-waiver trade deadline, when calls often are made on signing pending free agents or offering them as trade bait, crucial decisions for small-market teams, including San Diego …

Jabara appears to fit well with the “small-ball” approach that many small-market teams deploy, cobbling together rosters that aim to be competitive without big-salary stars. Jabara took a similar approach to real estate, cobbling together a portfolio of small parcels of land for the cell phone towers that made his fortune. “Not a lot of guys want to waste their time with a $100,000 tower,” Jabara told our real estate reporter Mark Mueller when we broke the news of his $1.1 billion deal back in February …

The OC connection on the sellers’ side of the Padres’ deal stands to make out fine. Jeff Moorad—who has a house in Big Canyon and remains active in the YPO forum here—wasn’t able to put his own deal for controlling interest in the team together, but the group he heads still has a 49% stake …

Wall Street is betting on a higher price for Quest Software, whose shares were trading above the $2.2 billion offer from an undisclosed bidder, believed to be Dell, as the Business Journal went to press. Quest also has a bid on the table from New York-based private equity firm Insight Ventures Partners that values the company at $2 billion, with Vinny Smith keeping control. The recent offer from an undisclosed bidder would buy Smith out of the picture. Quest’s board has set up a mechanism to allow the undisclosed bidder to acquire a chunk of shares to partially offset Smith’s stake if he decides to stand in the way of that deal …

More than a few locals have wondered what can be expected for the Orange County Register’s long heritage as a voice of libertarianism under Aaron Kushner, the Boston-based investor who has deal to buy the daily and six others from Freedom Communications (see story, page 1). The early churn of reports and speculation points to pragmatism over ideology. Kushner apparently has donated money to President Obama and other Democrats. He also fell out of a deal for a newspaper in Maine over an insistence on trimming union benefits …

Grad season’s special girl: It’s Neha Dharod, daughter of Harshad Dharod, who owns Friendly Franchisees Corp. in La Palma. Neha is set to finish up this week from New Vista School in Laguna Hills, which serves children with autism and other special needs. The Insider sends along best wishes to Neha and her fellow graduates.

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