PORTLAND, Oregon – Paul Allen’s estate has reached a formal agreement to sell the Portland Trail Blazers to an investor group led by Tom Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Dundon announced a tentative agreement last month to acquire the team and keep it in Portland. Allen’s estate announced on Friday that it had “entered into a formal sale agreement” with the group. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Dundon group includes Sheel Tyle, based in Portland and co-founder of the investment firm Collective Global; Marc Zahr, co-chairman of Blue Owl Capital; and the Cherng Family Trust, the family office and investment firm of the co-founders of Panda Express.
The NBA Board of Governors must ratify any final purchase agreement. It was reported that the deal is for $4 billion.
The sale of the Blazers is expected to close by the end of this year.
Dundon, 53, bought a stake in the Hurricanes in 2017 and became the majority owner in 2018. He is chairman and managing partner of the Dallas-based firm Dundon Capital Partners.
Allen’s estate announced in May that it had begun the process of selling the Trail Blazers. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, who died in 2018 at age 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, originally bought the Blazers in 1988 for $70 million.
Allen also owned the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and co-owned the Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders.
Since his death, Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, has been chair of both the Blazers and the Seahawks and is a trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust. Paul Allen stipulated in his will the eventual sale of his teams, with the proceeds going to philanthropic initiatives.
The estate has not announced plans for the sale of the Seahawks or the 25% stake in the Sounders.
