Daniel Snyder

Daniel Marc Snyder (born November 23, 1964) is an American businessman who formerly owned the Washington Commanders, an American football franchise belonging to the National Football League (NFL).

Snyder was born on November 23, 1964, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The son of Arlette (née Amsellem) and Gerald Snyder, he was raised in a Jewish household.

His father was a freelance writer who wrote for United Press International and National Geographic.

At age 12, he moved to Henley-on-Thames, a small town near London, where he attended private school.

At age 14, he returned to the United States and lived with his grandmother in Queens, New York.

A year later, his family moved to Rockville, Maryland, where Snyder graduated from Charles W. Woodward High School.

His first job was at a B. Dalton bookstore in White Flint Mall.

By age 20, he had dropped out of the University of Maryland, College Park and was running his own business, leasing jets to fly college students to spring break in Fort Lauderdale and the Caribbean.

Snyder claimed to have earned US$1 million running the business out of his parents' bedroom with his friend Joe Craig and several telephone lines.

Snyder courted real estate entrepreneur Mortimer Zuckerman, whose U.S. News & World Report was also interested in the college market and who agreed to finance his push to publish Campus USA, a magazine for college students.

Zuckerman and Fred Drasner, co-publisher of Zuckerman's New York Daily News, invested $3 million in Campus USA.

The venture did not generate enough paid advertising and was forced to close after two years.

In 1989, Snyder and his sister Michele founded Snyder Communications, an advertising company with seed money from their father.

They concentrated on wallboards in doctors' offices and colleges.

They combined the advertisements with the distribution of product samples, such as soaps and packages of medicine, to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Snyder continued to expand its activities to different aspects of outsourced marketing.

Revenues rose from $2.7 million in 1991 to $9 million in 1993.

In 1992, the company expanded into telemarketing with a focus on the immigrant market.

Snyder became the youngest CEO of a New York Stock Exchange listed company at the age of 32 when it underwent an initial public offering in September 1996.

His top investors, including media mogul Barry Diller and Robert Strauss, earned significant returns on their initial investment.

Mortimer Zuckerman and Fred Drasner, whom Snyder owed $3 million from the failure of his first business venture, were given company stock, which ended up being worth over $500 million.

His parents sold their stock in the company for over $60 million.

He continued to expand the company aggressively through a string of acquisitions, such as Arnold Worldwide in 1997.

By 1998, the company had over 12,000 employees and $1 billion in annual revenues.

He bought the team, then known as the Redskins, from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke in 1999.

Snyder is widely considered to be one of the worst owners in the history of professional sports, with the team managing only two playoff wins and six playoff appearances in his 24 years of ownership.

Snyder's ownership of the team was also marred by the enablement of a toxic workplace culture, financial improprieties, and allegations of sexual misconduct.

In May 1999, Snyder purchased the Washington Redskins, along with Jack Kent Cooke Stadium for $800 million following the death of previous owner Jack Kent Cooke.

At the time, it was the most expensive transaction in sporting history.

The deal was financed largely through borrowed money, including $340 million borrowed from Société Générale and $155 million debt assumed on the stadium.

In April 2000, Snyder Communications was sold to the French advertising and marketing services group Havas in an all-stock transaction valued at in excess of US$2 billion.

Snyder's personal share of the proceeds was estimated to be US$300 million.

To pay down the team's debt, in 2003, he sold 15 percent of the team to real estate developer Dwight Schar for $200 million, 15 percent to Florida financier Robert Rothman for a like amount; and 5 percent to Frederick W. Smith, the founder of FedEx, leaving him with a 65 percent ownership interest.

By the early 2020s, pressure from other NFL owners and investigations by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and other agencies led him moving to London and selling the team in 2023 to an investment group headed by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, the largest transaction ever for a sports franchise.

In 2020, Snyder blocked the minority owners from selling their combined 35 percent ownership stake to an outside party by exercising his right of first refusal, only offering to buy back the 20 percent held by Rothman and Smith but not the 15 percent owned by Schar.

In April 2021, after a period of litigation, the league approved Snyder for a debt waiver of $400 million to acquire the remaining ownership stake held by the three in a deal worth over $800 million.

Due to financial issues and increasing pressure from the NFL and other parties, he hired BofA Securities to explore possible sale transactions in November 2022.

Snyder began negotiating to a group led by private equity investor Josh Harris in April 2023, with an agreement being reached in May to sell the franchise for $6.05 billion, the highest price ever for a sports team.

The deal was unanimously approved by other NFL owners on July 20, 2023, and closed a day later.