The software company matches the FTX offer before the crypto bust
The Miami Heat would play in the Kaseya Center under a proposed $117 million naming rights deal with a booming software company headquartered in the city’s Brickell Avenue district, according to a proposal released Wednesday night by County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
If approved by Miami-Dade County commissioners next week, the 17-year deal would largely match the promised payments that came from the arena’s previous sponsor, the FTX crypto exchange. After signing up as the arena’s sponsor in 2021, FTX collapsed into bankruptcy late last year as its CEO at the time faced fraud allegations that led to criminal charges of misappropriating customer funds.
READ MORE: Miami tech company in talks to replace FTX as new Miami Heat arena sponsor
Although not a consumer brand, Kaseya is gaining attention in global technology. The hiring announcements call for a $15 billion valuation, and last year it bought a rival software player for an estimated $6.2 billion.
FTX’s $135 million deal with Miami-Dade was to last 19 years, averaging about $7 million annually, roughly the annual average of the Kaseya deal. Because of the nearly $2 million one-time brokerage fee in the FTX deal and other deductions, Miami-Dade will receive slightly more from Kaseya over the long term: $4.9 million annually on average, compared to $4.7 million from FTX, according to county figures . .
In both deals, the Heat receive $2 million annually under the county’s original agreement with the team that dates back to the waterfront facility’s opening as AmericanAirlines Arena in 2000. In 2021, commissioners approved Levine Cava’s plan to use the FTX money to fund programs aimed at reducing gun violence and promoting economic prosperity.
The NBA has not greenlit the Kaseya deal, according to the Levine Cava memo, and it may not until the commissioners vote on the deal on April 4. The sponsorship agreement cannot be completed without league approval.
The deal will mean an increase in exposure for Kaseya, a privately held company with around 900 employees in Miami across four offices in the Brickell Avenue area. The company recently announced plans to hire 3,000 more employees in Miami, securing a promise of $4.6 million in subsidies from Miami-Dade if hiring goals are met.
After getting burned in the FTX deal, Miami-Dade negotiated a $7.5 million line of credit from Kaseya that would cover 18 months of future payments for naming rights. The company, which sells IT software, has 18 offices in the United States and 14 more worldwide, with a total of 4,500 employees. Last year, it paid an estimated $6.2 billion to buy Datto, then a publicly traded software security company.
In 2021, Kaseya suffered a ransomware attack, with effects from the hack spreading to around 1,500 businesses globally.
Kaseya was one of at least six companies in talks with Miami-Dade about naming rights for the county-owned arena, according to the Levine Cava memo. The others were not named, but internal emails show that Aroma360, a Miami-based home fragrance maker, and iHeart Media, a radio operator from San Antonio, Texas, had contacted the Levine Cava administration following FTX’s legal troubles.
The Kaseya deal came about without the expensive naming rights broker who got the FTX deal. Superlative Group was to collect $5.2 million over the life of the deal, but for the Kaseya deal, Miami-Dade would only pay a $45,000 fee to PFM, a financial advisory firm.
