According to ESPN, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has allowed his team to slip from his fingers, with a winning bid of $2 billion from an investment group led by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Sources tell ESPN that the deal will be going straight to NBA’s offices for approval with no further permission needed from Donald Sterling.
Of the three bids considered on Thursday night, Ballmer’s was by far the most substantial. The other teams of investors — one led by Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh and the other by David Geffen — offered $1.6 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
The timing of the agreement is of great significance, as wife Shelley Sterling pushed to make a deal before the NBA league owners’ meeting on Tuesday, June 3, at which Commissioner Adam Silver and company were planning on terminating the Sterlings’ controlling interest in the team.
And in spite of Donald Sterling’s representatives having stated their client’s desire to hold on to the Clippers “to the bloody end,” it appears that Ballmer will be the new principal owner of the Los Angeles franchise.
Should the deal go through, the $2 billion price tag would be the second-highest amount paid for a sports franchise in North American sports, falling just behind the 2012 sale of the Los Angles Dodgers for $2.1 billion.
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