Who owns the Baltimore Orioles? David Rubenstein, explained

David M. Rubenstein has controlled the Baltimore Orioles since March 2024, leading an investment group that includes Michael Bloomberg, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill, and Michele Kang, founder of medical-tech companies and majority owner of the Washington Spirit. The group paid $1.73 billion for the franchise, ending the Angelos family’s 31-year ownership. What makes this ownership distinctive: Rubenstein is a Baltimore native whose father was a postal worker, and buying the Orioles means owning the team of his childhood.

🏟️ Ownership at a glance

Principal owner	David M. Rubenstein
Controlling group	Investment group led by David Rubenstein
Current group since	2024
Purchase price	$1.73B
Latest valuation	$2.1B
Owner’s net worth	$4.2B
Value multiple	1.2× the purchase price

Who is David Rubenstein

David Mark Rubenstein was born in Baltimore on August 11, 1949, the only child of a postal carrier and a homemaker in a working-class Jewish neighborhood in the city’s northeast. He attended Baltimore City College on a public scholarship, graduated from Duke University on a scholarship, and earned his law degree from the University of Chicago. At 27, he served as a domestic policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter; after Carter’s defeat in 1980, he moved into leveraged buyouts.

In 1987, Rubenstein co-founded The Carlyle Group with William Conway Jr. and Daniel D’Aniello. Today the firm manages approximately $465 billion in assets, and he serves as co-chief executive officer. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, is 76 years old, hosts interview programs on Bloomberg TV and PBS, chairs the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution, and is known for what he calls ‘patriotic philanthropy’—he paid $24.5 million in 2007 for one of four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta and loaned it permanently to the National Archives.

How they bought the team

Rubenstein’s group acquired the Orioles in 2024 for $1.73 billion, buying from the Angelos family. Peter Angelos, a mass-tort attorney who made his fortune in asbestos and tobacco litigation, had owned the team since 1993, when he paid $173 million. The family’s ownership ended in legal turmoil: in 2022, Louis Angelos sued his brother John and their mother Georgia over control of the family empire while their father was incapacitated. The lawsuits were withdrawn in February 2023, and the sale to Rubenstein’s group was announced a year later. Peter Angelos died in March 2024, weeks before MLB approved the transaction.

Year	Buyer	Amount
1993	Group led by Peter G. Angelos	$173M
2024	David Rubenstein group (purchased from the Angelos family)	$1.73B

What else they own

Beyond the Orioles, Rubenstein co-founded and co-leads The Carlyle Group, which manages approximately $465 billion in assets. He chairs the board of the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution, has chaired Duke University’s board and the Council on Foreign Relations, and hosts The David Rubenstein Show on Bloomberg TV and programs on PBS. He is also a collector of historical documents: besides the Magna Carta, he owns copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment. He is a signatory to the Giving Pledge.

Where the games air

Orioles games air on MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network), which the team controls. A major shift occurred in 2026: the Washington Nationals, who had shared MASN since 2005 under a compensation agreement tied to the Expos relocation, departed the network. After more than a decade of legal disputes, the matter was resolved in March 2025; the Nationals remained on MASN through 2025 and became free to negotiate their own rights starting in 2026, signing with MLB Media in January 2026. MASN now operates solely as the Orioles’ rights holder across its seven-state region and launched MASN+, a direct-to-consumer streaming service with season passes, while also distributing through MLB.TV. MLB does not produce Baltimore’s broadcasts.

Facts worth knowing

Rubenstein is the son of a Baltimore mail carrier who earned about $7,000 a year. Buying the Orioles for an undisclosed sum is one of the most extreme stories of social mobility in the history of US sports ownership.
Before the sale, the Angelos family was torn apart in court: in 2022 Louis Angelos sued his brother John and his mother Georgia accusing them of taking control of the family empire while their father, Peter, was incapacitated. The lawsuits were withdrawn in February 2023 and the sale was announced a year later. Peter Angelos died in March 2024, weeks before MLB approved the sale.
Peter Angelos, a mass tort lawyer who made his fortune with asbestos and tobacco cases, was the ONLY MLB owner who refused to use replacement players during the 1994-95 strike, out of union loyalty. The Orioles simply did not play preseason games with scabs.
Rubenstein paid $24.5 million for an original copy of the Magna Carta in 2007—more expensive per document than almost anything a ballplayer has ever signed.
His guiding phrase sums up his philosophy: ‘Obsession with making money rarely leads to making money. Obsession with achieving excellence is what normally leads to making a fortune’.
In August 2025 the Orioles signed Dominican catcher Samuel Basallo to 8 years and $67 million just days after his Major League debut—the largest extension in history for a player with so little time in MLB. Rubenstein publicly called it ‘a symbolic first step’, sending the message that the era of Angelos stinginess was over.

Where they stand among the 30 owners

List	Rank
By franchise value	#18 de 30
By purchase price	#4 de 27
By owner’s net worth	#11 de 21
By years in charge	#28 de 30

Amounts are nominal and not adjusted for inflation: comparing a decades-old purchase price with today’s valuation overstates the real gain.

Among the 30 MLB owners, Rubenstein ranks 18th in franchise valuation at $2.1 billion—up 11 percent from 2025—and the team is worth 1.2 times what he paid for it. He is 28th in tenure, having owned the club for 2 years. His ownership represents one of the most extreme rags-to-riches stories in American sports: the son of a postal worker who earned roughly $7,000 a year now controls a $2.1 billion franchise. Under his stewardship, the Orioles have signaled a departure from the Angelos era’s financial restraint, most visibly through an 8-year, $67 million extension to Dominican catcher Samuel Basallo in August 2025, barely days after his major league debut.