Silicon Valley Consortium beats Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG group to acquire London Spirit in The Hundred

The Silicon Valley Consortium has won the bidding rights to acquire the 49% stake of London Spirit in The Hundred. The consortium beat Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG Group, which owns Lucknow Super Giants in IPL, in the bidding that took place on Friday (January 31).

Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley consortium is headed by Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks at a staggering amount of £295 million. Their 49% stake means that they will pay £144.5 million while the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will retain the position of a majority shareholder in the team.

Also read: Washington Freedom owners acquire Welsh Fire franchise in £67.5 million valuation

Silicon Valley Consortium acquires London Spirit in The Hundred

The price of £295 million is more than double the floor valuation which was earlier set for London Spirit based on the attractive bids by the investors. It shows the value of the club and it's home Lord's in the sport.

The revenue that will be raised in the sales process will be divided between 18 first-class counties, MCC, and the recreational game which is designed to advance county cricket for the upcoming 20 years.

The name of the consortium is Cricket Investor Holdings Limited. It includes some of the biggest names of the tech industries across the world like Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (CEO of Adobe), and Egon Durban (CEO of Silver Lake Management). The group also includes Arora himself and Satyan Gajwani, the vice-chairman of Times Internet and one of the co-founders of Major League Cricket.

The bidding for the consortium was spearheaded by Nikesh Arora and Satyan Gajwani who were among the last investors to enter this race. A total of 11 individuals were involved in the consortium. RPSG Group decided to quit the bidding race at the £292 million mark.

MCC looking to work together with a consortium

The chairman of MCC, Mark Nicholas, was pleased to have found an able partner to run the team. He spoke about the importance of the iconic Lord's and aims to build on a good relationship with the consortium for years.

"We are delighted to have found partners who share our values and understand the power and mystique of Lord's. We look forward to building on the happy relationship we have already established over the past few weeks," NIcholas stated to the MCC members on January 31 evening.

"Today's announcement shows what we as Members have always known: our Club is special. It's why people want to be involved with us. I hope that all Members are as proud as I am and excited at the opportunities that lie ahead," he added.

London Spirit are currently the defending champions of The Women's Hundred. However, their men's team have only won three matches over the last couple of seasons. London Spirit finished bottom of the points table in the 2024 season.

Due to the intense bidding war of London Spirit, there was a three-hour delay for the start time of the process for Welsh Fire. The minority rights for the Welsh Fire were later acquired by Sanjay Govil, a US tech entrepreneur who also owns Washington Freedom in the MLC.

New focus for Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG Group

After the disappointment with London Spirit, the RPSG Group will now focus on buying Manchester Originals, another team with a high valuation. The bidding for Originals will take place next week. The RPSG Group has already had some meetings with Lancashire over the past few months.

The RPSG Group, headed by the billionaire Sanjiv Goenka, owns Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL. It is also the most expensive team in the Indian Premier League.

Reliance Industries Limited, which bought a 49% stake in Oval Invincibles earlier, was also in the race for Originals earlier but will be out of the race after having secured a team now.