Formal Agreement for the Sale of the Trail Blazers
Paul Allen’s estate has finalized a formal agreement to sell the Portland Trail Blazers to an investor group led by Tom Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Dundon had announced a tentative agreement last month to acquire the team and keep it in Portland. On Friday, Allen’s estate communicated the “celebration of a formal sale agreement” with the investor group. The financial terms were not disclosed.
The Dundon group includes Sheel Tyle, co-founder of the Portland-based investment firm Collective Global; Marc Zahr, co-chairman of Blue Owl Capital; and Cherng Family Trust, the family office and investment firm of the co-founders of Panda Express.
The NBA Board of Governors will need to ratify any final purchase agreement. The deal was reported to have closed for $4 billion. In comparison, the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion in March.
The sale of the Blazers is expected to be completed before 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.
In May, Allen’s estate announced the start of the process of selling the Trail Blazers. The Microsoft co-founder, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 65 due to complications from 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, Jody Allen, Allen’s sister, has served as 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, allocating the profits to philanthropic purposes.
The estate has not yet announced plans for the sale of the Seahawks or the 25% stake in the Sounders.
