So yesterday I stumbled across this question online – what businesses does Shaquille O’Neal actually own? Honestly, I just thought of him as the big guy from the Lakers, maybe doing some commercials. Turns out, I was way off base.
I started digging around late last night. First stop? Just typing his name + “business” into a search engine. Seemed basic, but you gotta start somewhere. Initial results were messy – tons of links about his playing days, his TV gigs, stuff with Kobe… not much focused purely on ownership.
Getting a bit frustrated, I started adding words like “portfolio,” “investments,” “entrepreneur.” Still felt like I was chasing ghosts. Articles would mention one or two things casually – like his stake in Google before it blew up (wow!) or owning a bunch of Auntie Anne’s pretzel franchises. But I needed a bigger picture.
Then I remembered Forbes often does deep dives on celebrity money. Scrolled through a few of their articles tagged with his name. Bingo! Started seeing patterns and getting more specific names beyond the usual suspects. That’s when the list really started growing. It wasn’t just the obvious stuff like the car washes or gyms anymore.
Here’s what surprised me the most:
- He owns 155 Five Guys burger joints. Seriously?! That’s almost everywhere! I had no idea his franchise empire was that huge.
- Big Chicken? His own restaurant chain focused on, you guessed it, chicken sandwiches. Makes sense with his personality, but didn’t realize he’d built it into a proper chain.
- Tons of Papa John’s locations too. Guy must love fast food investments, or maybe he just loves food!
- Some really unexpected ones popped up. He co-owns a death investigation company? That was a “wait, what?” moment.
- A massive car dealership group? Not just one, but a whole group? That felt completely out of left field.
- And even the rights to manage music royalties? How does that even connect? Super niche and unexpected.
Honestly, it felt like every few minutes I’d find something else. Piecing it together took way longer than I thought. Going from seeing him dunk on TV to realizing he owns pieces of everything from pretzels to death investigations was… wild. It wasn’t just endorsements; he actually owned chunks of these businesses. The list felt endless.
Wrapping up my search, it hit me – Shaq the businessman is a whole different animal than Shaq the player. His portfolio is crazy diverse and way bigger than just sports stuff. Seems like he just finds things he understands, sometimes finds funny, and jumps in big. Lesson learned? Celeb business ownership can get really complicated and super surprising.
