Sacramento entrepreneur · Indian American
Vivek Ranadivé
Chairman and owner, Sacramento Kings; owner, Sacramento River Cats
The software founder who kept the Kings in Sacramento in 2013 and built Golden 1 Center downtown.
Vivek Ranadivé is the chairman and owner of the Sacramento Kings and, since 2022, the owner of the Sacramento River Cats. In 2013 he led the group that bought 65% of the Kings for about $348 million and kept the team in Sacramento.
By the numbers
The data
Three deals, in millions of dollars
Sources: Wikipedia (Ranadivé; TIBCO Software). Teknekron sold to Reuters (1994); 65% of the Kings (2013); TIBCO to Vista Equity Partners (2014).
The story of Vivek Ranadivé
Ranadivé was born in Mumbai in 1957 and earned two engineering degrees at MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1983. In 1985 he founded Teknekron Software Systems with $250,000 in seed money; Reuters bought it in 1994 for $125 million.
In 1997 he founded TIBCO Software, whose real-time messaging software ran trading floors and airlines. TIBCO went public in 1999, reached $920 million in revenue and 2,500 employees by 2011, and was sold to Vista Equity Partners for $4.2 billion in December 2014.
In 2010 he became the first person of Indian descent to co-own an NBA team, as vice chairman of the Golden State Warriors, then sold that stake to buy the Kings. The NBA approved the sale on May 28, 2013. Golden 1 Center, the downtown arena built for the team, opened on Sept. 30, 2016, with 17,608 seats for basketball and a $120 million, 20-year naming-rights deal with Golden 1 Credit Union.
Awards and recognition
Milestones
- 1957Born in Mumbai, India.
- 1985Founds Teknekron Software Systems.
- 1994Reuters buys Teknekron for $125 million.
- 1997Founds TIBCO Software; public in 1999.
- 2010Co-owner and vice chairman, Golden State Warriors.
- 2013Buys 65% of the Sacramento Kings; NBA approves May 28.
- 2014TIBCO sold to Vista Equity Partners for $4.2 billion.
- 2016Golden 1 Center opens downtown (Sept. 30); Bow Capital founded.
- 2022Buys the Sacramento River Cats.
Companies and ventures
Lessons for business builders
- Sell when the price is right and reinvest: each exit funded a bigger bet.
- Build in the community you serve; a downtown arena changed what surrounds it.
- Real-time data was TIBCO’s product and is still a useful habit for any owner.
Sources
- Vivek Ranadivé (Wikipedia)
- TIBCO Software (Wikipedia)
- Golden 1 Center (Wikipedia)
- Sacramento Kings (Wikipedia)
Photo: Golden 1 Center, by Brian Libby, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Figures marked firm-reported come from the company; all others from the sources above, checked November 2026.
