Formal Agreement for the Sale of the Portland Trail Blazers
Paul Allen’s estate has finalized a formal agreement for the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers to an investor group led by Tom Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Dundon had already announced a tentative agreement last month to acquire the team and keep it in Portland. Allen’s estate announced this Friday that a “formal sale agreement” had been “signed” with the group, although the financial terms 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.
Final approval of the purchase will require ratification by the NBA Board of Governors.
The sale of the Blazers is expected to be completed before the end of the 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 the start of the process of selling the Trail Blazers. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, passed away in 2018 at the age of 65 due to complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and 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, Paul Allen’s sister, has served as chair of both the Blazers and the Seahawks, as well as being a trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust. In his will, Paul Allen stipulated the eventual sale of his teams, allocating the proceeds to philanthropic purposes.
The estate has not yet announced plans for the sale of the Seahawks or the 25% stake in the Sounders.
