The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes NHL team reached an agreement to buy the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team from the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Dallas-based billionaire Tom Dundon declined to give specific details of the deal on Wednesday, according to CNBC. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the price tag was over $4 billion.
The Oregonian reported that Dundon heads a group of investors that includes the co-president of Blue Owl Capital, Marc Zahr, as well as Portland-based Sheel Tyle, co-CEO of Collective Global. A source said the group “is passionate about basketball and intends to keep the team in Portland, where it belongs.”
Any deal will require NBA approval.
The Allen estate announced in May that it was seeking a buyer, consistent with Allen’s wishes that his sports franchises be sold off, with the proceeds going to philanthropy.
The sale is part of the long process of divesting many of the assets and investments that Allen made during his lifetime. Allen died in 2018, at the age of 65, after he was diagnosed with a recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Allen’s estate, headed by his sister Jody Allen, previously said the Trail Blazers announcement does not impact its ownership of the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, or its 25% stake in the Seattle Sounders MLS team, which are not yet for sale.
The Trail Blazers started play during the 1970-71 NBA season. Allen bought the team in 1988 for $70 million.
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