Clippers sold to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion, deal now signed
By Mike Dyce
There were reports on Thursday that the Los Angles Clippers had been sold to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and then follow-up reports that a deal had not been done. Now just hours later, there is reportedly an official binding agreement between Ballmer and the Sterling to sell the Clippers for $2 billion.
There is now a signed, binding agreement between Ballmer and the Sterling family trust to sell the Clippers for $2billion, ESPN has learned
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 30, 2014
Ballmer's agreement will go straight to the NBA for final approval, source tells ESPN.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 30, 2014
In other words, the signed binding agreement btwn the Sterling family trust & Ballmer for $2b does not need another sign-off from Donald.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 30, 2014
It comes just minutes, maybe within two hours of Sterling’s lawyer declaring there had been no sale and that he believed their would be no sale. Now that has all apparently changed.
Before all this news broke out, Ballmer had talked about potentially buying the Clippers and said his plan did not include relocating the team to Seattle.
“I love basketball, and I’d love to participate at some point in the NBA. If the opportunity is outside of Seattle, so be it. I will learn about any team that comes up for sale at this point,” Ballmer said before news of the sale broke in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“If I get interested in the Clippers, it would be for Los Angeles. I don’t work anymore, so I have more geographic flexibility than I did a year, year-and-a half ago. Moving them anywhere else would be value destructive.”