Patrick Soon-Shiong to Make Bid for Dodgers

Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong committed himself Tuesday to making a bid for ownership of the Dodgers. He will likely add his financial clout to one of nine groups currently pursuing the troubled Los Angeles baseball team.

“We have participated in several meetings during the last few weeks and have concluded that we will absolutely participate in pursuing the Dodgers,” said Soon-Shiong’s representative Chuck Kenworthy. “At this time, we intend to take follow-up meetings in order to determine which group will best serve the team, the loyal Dodger fans and our great city.”

Dodger’s owner Frank McCourt expects to get at least $1.5 billion for the team.

Soon-Shiong — generally acknowledged to be L.A.’s richest person thanks to his $7 billion fortune — bought Magic Johnson’s 4.5% stake in the Lakers two years ago. That gives the group headed up by Johnson and veteran baseball executive Stan Kasten the inside track on signing Soon-Shiong. But the Chinese American is talking with other groups, including one led by upscale mall developer Rick Caruso and former Dodgers manager Joe Torre.

Soon-Shiong has also expressed interest in buying a stake in an NFL team should the league ever return to Los Angeles.

Soon-Shiong made his fortune by selling two biotech firms he founded in the late 1990s and built up after immigrating from South Africa where he grew up. He netted $3.7 billion from his 80% stake in injectibles supplier APP which he sold in July of 2008 for $4.6 billion. He added another $2.5 billion in June of 2010 by selling Abraxis BioScience, in which he had an 80% stake, for $2.9 billion.

Soon-Shiong and wife Michele, a former South African actress, have created a family foundation through which some of his wealth is funneled to expand healthcare to the poor. The couple began by pledging $55 million to St. John’s Medical Center in nearby Santa Monica in 2008. Since then they have increased the pledge to over $100 mil. and has provided another $100 mil. in underwriting guarantees to help reopen L.A.‘s Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center.

The Soon-Shiongs live in Brentwood where they disrupted a quiet neighborhood by buying up a half dozen lots, tearing down the modest older homes that occupied the tracts, then building a mega-mansion. They live there with a teen-age daughter and son. Soon-Shiong enjoys surfing, fishing and playing tennis.