Gary Jabara, founder and chief executive of Newport Beach-based cell phone tower company Mobilitie LLC, is in the running to buy the San Diego Padres, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Jabara is the leader of one of three groups still believed to be in the running to buy the baseball team, which is one the market for about $800 million, according to the report.
Other potential buyers are said to include former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley and Steve Kaplan, a principal at Los Angeles-based hedge fund Oaktree Capital Management.
Mobilitie, one of the country’s largest owners of cell towers, sold off a portion of its portfolio to Boca Raton, Fla.-based competitor SBA Communications Corp. earlier this year for about $1.1 billion.
At the time the deal was struck in February, Jabara told the Business Journal he would be looking to buy apartments, hotels and other commercial properties as investments with some of the proceeds from the sale.
Jabara, an Irvine resident, started Mobilitie (pronounced “mobility”) about six years ago. He was previously was a partner at Deloitte, and worked in the telecommunications infrastructure practice of the accounting and consulting firm.
