Report: Former Microsoft CEO to buy Clippers for $2 billion
May 29, 2014, 11:11 PM | Updated: 11:14 pm
PHOENIX — The National Basketball League and Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly one step closer to removing current owner Donald Sterling.
According to the Los Angeles Times, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s NBA-record $2 billion bid for the team has been accepted.
Balmer, who was chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years, was chosen over competitors that included Los Angeles-based investors Tony Ressler and Steve Karsh and a group that included David Geffen and executives from the Guggenheim Group, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
If the sale goes through, it will be nearly four times the highest sale price for an NBA team, set earlier this month when the Milwaukee Bucks were purchased for $550 million.
Sterling has to sign-off on the deal, though he is likely to be pressured by the league to do so. The other 29 NBA owners will also have to grant their approval.
Sterling came under fire earlier this month after several tapes of him making racist comments were released to the press.
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