Formal Agreement for the Sale of the Trail Blazers
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 last month a tentative agreement to acquire the team and keep it in Portland. On Friday, Allen’s estate announced that it had “entered into a formal sale agreement” with the group. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Dundon group includes Portland-based Sheel Tyle, 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.
Any final purchase agreement must be ratified by the NBA Board of Governors. It was reported that the deal was for $4 billion. In March, the Boston Celtics were sold for $6.1 billion.
The sale of the Blazers is expected to close at the end of this year.
Dundon, 53, acquired a stake in the Hurricanes in 2017 and became the majority owner in 2018. He is the 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 Microsoft billionaire co-founder, who died in 2018 at the age of 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, and that the proceeds would go to philanthropic purposes.
The estate has not announced plans to sell the Seahawks or the 25% stake in the Sounders.
