LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer donates $1 million to mitigate coronavirus damages

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer through the philanthropic foundation he manages with his wife Connie, will donate 1 million US dollars (£857,000) to ease the ripple effect caused by the coronavirus.

The Los Angeles County's Office of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District each received a $250,000 donation from The Ballmer Group.

. They continue to provide urgent meals and supplies to impoverished students and their families.

District Superintendent Austin Beutner claims that the school district serves one million meals to children in ordinary days. Now in times of hardship due to the pandemic, those meals must continue to be provided to those in need.

According to Clipsnation, $100,000 will be donated to Brilliant Corners to help support the homeless, and another $150,000 will be given to the California Community Foundation. The Ballmer Group still is undecided on where to direct the remaining $250,000.

The NBA shutdown has affected thousands of part-time workers who rely on arena events to supplement their income. They range from roving food vendors, utility and maintenance personnel, to communication technicians.

Steve Ballmer offered to buy the Los Angeles Clippers in May 2014 for 2 billion dollars, a couple of months after retiring as the CEO of Microsoft. The deal pushed through by August. Another Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, has owned the Portland Trail Blazers since 1988.

Ballmer met Bill Gates in the 1970s during their time in Harvard University, Gates dropped out to "do his own thing" while Ballmer continued to graduate magna cum laude with a degree in applied mathematics and economics. In June 1980, Bill Gates reached out and hired Ballmer as Microsoft's first business manager. He eventually replaced Gates as CEO when the latter retired in 2000. He is the second person to become a billionaire (in US dollars) as an employee of a corporation that's not a relative of any corporate founder and based only on stock options.

In 2008, Ballmer invested $150,000 for the renovation of the Key Arena and set a bid for the Seattle Supersonics. The deal didn't push through.