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Sternberg Buys 48 Percent Of Rays

By Carter Gaddis
The Tampa Bay Tribune
Published: May 8, 2004

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The sale of 48 percent of the Devil Rays to Stuart Sternberg of Rye, N.Y., will be announced during the upcoming homestand.

Sternberg, 44, and other investors have purchased the shares of general partners Robert Basham, Chris Sullivan, Mark Bostick, Dan Doyle and the Bill Griffin family trust. Rays managing general partner Vince Naimoli owns 16.7 percent of the team but will stay in charge of the franchise as baseball's designated ``control'' person.

Sternberg has never owned a professional team but is a lifelong sports fans with a particular interest in baseball.

He was an executive with the options trading firm Spear, Leeds and Kellogg (SLK) when that firm was acquired by the international investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in 2000 for $6.5 billion. In 2001, Sternberg was named co-head of SLK-Hull Derivatives, a New York-based options trading company that was part of Goldman Sachs.

He was a managing director with Goldman Sachs when he left the company in 2002.

News of the transaction surfaced in January. It does not need to be approved by a vote of the 30 teams because control doesn't change hands.

Carter Gaddis