Pegula is the owner of the Buffalo Bills (football) and Buffalo Sabres (hockey) franchises. He made his fortune from East Resources, a natural gas producer he founded and sold in three parts, collecting $5.3 billion. A native of Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Pegula still owns some leases in the Marcellus and Niobrara shale formations.
Terry Pegula's net worth of $6.05B can buy ...
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The majority of Pegula's fortune is derived from East Resources, a U.S. natural gas exploration and production company he founded in 1983 and sold the majority of in transactions in 2009, 2010 and 2014. Pegula received $5.3 billion before capital gains taxes and after accounting for company debt that retired in the sales, according to Bloomberg News, press releases and an article in the Oil and Gas Financial Journal.
The billionaire purchased the Buffalo Bills football franchise for $1.4 billion in 2014. He's the sole owner of the team and has no debt on the organization. It was valued at its purchase price until October 2018 when it was adjusted to better reflect the higher price paid for another NFL team, the Carolina Panthers, in July 2018.
Pegula purchased the Buffalo Sabres pro hockey franchise and the team's arena for $189 million in 2011. It's valued at $500 million, based on a Bloomberg analysis of recent transaction values for similar teams and discussions with sports valuation consultant Marc Ganis.
Pegula stated in mid-2014 that he holds "significant oil and gas assets" in Colorado, Wyoming, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They're not valued because of a lack of information.
The value of Pegula's cash and other assets is calculated by applying taxes and accounting for market performance and charitable giving.
Michael Gilbert, a spokesman for Pegula, said in an e-mail that the billionaire declined to comment on his net worth.
Terry Pegula was born in March 1951 in Carbondale, in northeast Pennsylvania. He attended high school at Jesuit-run Scranton Preparatory School in nearby Scranton and later enrolled at Pennsylvania State University as a math major. In order to stay in school and secure a scholarship, he switched majors to natural gas engineering, according to a December 2014 biography of Pegula on the Buffalo Sabres website.
Pegula graduated Penn State in 1973 and got his first job with Getty Oil in Victoria, Texas. He later joined Felmont Oil Co., transferring with the job to western New York. An ice hockey enthusiast, Pegula became a fan of the Buffalo Sabres franchise while watching the 1975 Stanley Cup finals. He bought the team in 2011.
He formed his own oil and gas exploration and production company, East Resources, in 1983, using $7,500 borrowed from friends and family. Over the next 27 years, he built it into one of the largest closely held energy companies in the U.S. He began to divest most of its assets in 2009, collecting almost $5.3 billion. After completing those sales in 2014, he purchased the Buffalo Bills for $1.4 billion, pledging to keep the NFL football team at home.
Pegula lives in Buffalo and Boca Raton, Florida, with his second wife, Kim. He has five children from two marriages.