PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Paul Allen’s estate has agreed to a tentative agreement to sell the Portland Trail Blazers to a group led by Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon.
Dundon confirmed the agreement in a text exchange with The Associated Press on Wednesday. He also confirmed plans to keep the team in Portland.
The group includes Sheel Tyle, the co-founder of investment firm Collective Global, and Marc Zahr, co-president of Blue Owl Capital.
The NBA Board of Governors must ratify any final purchase agreement. ESPN reported Wednesday that the deal was for $4 billion. Dundon did not reveal the terms of the sale to the AP.
CNBC earlier this year valued the Trail Blazers at $3.65 billion. In March, the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion.
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 lymphoma, originally bought the Blazers in 1988 for $70 million.
Allen also owned the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and was a co-owner of Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders.
Since his death, Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, has served as chair of both teams 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 given to philanthropic endeavors.
The estate has not announced plans for the sale of the Seahawks or the 25% stake in the Sounders.
Jody Allen reportedly rebuffed an offer to buy the Trail Blazers from Nike co-founder Phil Knight for more than $2 billion in 2022. At that time, there were no ongoing discussions about the sale of the teams, she said in a rare statement.
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