A new era for the Utah Jazz is officially underway following a unanimous vote by the NBA board of governors Thursday to approve the Miller family sale of the nearly 50-year-old franchise to tech entrepreneur Ryan Smith and his wife, Ashley. Smith, as majority owner, has final authority and speaks for the group with the NBA. The Millers had owned the Jazz since 1985 when Larry H. Miller, Gail's late husband, purchased 50% of the club. Key Points Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith will take over ownership of the Utah Jazz Reports suggest Smith will pay $1.6 billion to the The Miller Family, which purchased the … And that means bringing more business – and fun – to his home state, at either business. Ryan Smith, 40, is a lifelong Utah resident and Jazz fan who built a software company that sold for a reported $8B. While Smith has stayed at Qualtrics since, now serving as its executive chairman with plans to spin the business back out via an IPO in 2021, he called Sweeney to see if the investor and Braccia, an early investor in Slack and a fellow Midas List top VC investor, wanted to join. “You can make money doing that?” Cannon-Brookes remembers Smith saying. More talent and entrepreneurs will develop and relocate to Utah in the years to come, they believe; it should be the same with the state’s most prominent professional sports franchise. Accel had backed Cannon-Brookes enterprise software company Atlassian in 2010, the firm’s then-largest single investment in an unlikely place in Australia. Smith had only recently met Sweeney, a Bay Area-based partner at venture capital firm Accel, when the investor connected him to Cannon-Brookes. The cofounder of Qualtrics loves basketball, lives in Utah, and is Mormon. She was putting her foot down," Smith told ESPN. fox13now.com - SALT LAKE CITY — Comedian and member of Monty Python John Cleese said on Twitter that he wants tickets to Wednesday's Utah Jazz game, and Jazz owner … Monty Python's John Cleese pleads for Utah Jazz tickets; owner Ryan Smith delivers - Flipboard “Companies are exiting super-cities and are making their way to other places ... and Utah is one of those places.”. Ryan Smith, born and … “We’re just going to build on what we’ve got ... and maybe put a lens on a few things and turn it up a little bit more.”. “As a lifelong fan of the Utah Jazz and more recently as one of their key marketing partners, Ryan has demonstrated his deep commitment to the Jazz and the Utah community and there’s no doubt he will bring that same level of dedication to the operation of the team. As it turns out, however, the tech mogul had … Smith has a lot in common with the man who bought a half-ownership of the Jazz in 1985 just a handful of years after the team moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City. Copyright © 2021 Deseret News Publishing Company. The new owner is Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith. “Not only do we have a great team and organization with the Jazz, but the trajectory of the state as a whole is unmatched. Smith was seriously considering taking the next step until his wife, Ashley, voiced her objection. Ryan is married to Ashley Smith. The group call owning the team a “stewardship” entrusted to them by Gail Miller and the Miller family, the former longtime owners of the team who will keep a minority stake moving forward. 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