Steve Ballmer, shown in 2012 as Microsoft CEO, has shown interest in the NBA for years.(Photo: Kimihiro Hoshino, AFP/Getty Images)
No winning bidder has been declared in the Los Angeles Clippers sale, a person familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports, refuting news reports that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had reached a deal Thursday to buy the team.
Ballmer is among those bidding for the team and has a strong offer of around $1.8 billion, said the person, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Ballmer could end up with the winning bid, but the process could drag into Friday or the weekend.
After Donald Sterling last week gave his wife written authorization to sell the team on his behalf, Shelly Sterling has continued that process and was expected to pick a buyer by Tuesday, when league owners are scheduled to vote on whether to terminate the Sterlings' ownership.
STERLINGS: Confusing legal gambit
DOCUMENT: Sterling's letter to NBA
Donald Sterling has not told Shelly Sterling to stop her efforts to sell the team despite his attorney's statement this week that Sterling does not want to sell and instead will fight the NBA's attempt to force him to sell the franchise, the person said.
This dual approach by the couple – to have Shelly Sterling negotiate a sale while Donald Sterling says he will fight a sale – potentially gives the Sterlings leverage against the NBA and could help drive up the price of the Clippers.
The NBA would have to approve any buyer, as would Donald Sterling, as a 50% owner with his wife.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced on April 29 that he would try to force a sale of the Clippers after Sterling was heard in an audio recording making racist remarks about African-Americans in a private conversation with his companion, V. Stiviano. The recording from September was leaked months later to the gossip site TMZ, prompting Silver to ban Sterling for life and fine him $2.5 million.
In a scathing 32-page response to the league, Sterling argued that his comments occurred in a private conversation that was illegally recorded under California law, and that he had not broken any NBA rules.
Ballmer, who was chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years, is competing with other bidders that include Los Angeles-based investors Tony Ressler and Steve Karsh and a group that includes David Geffen, Oprah Winfrey, Larry Ellison and executives from the Guggenheim Group, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ballmer was part of a group headed by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen that bid last year to buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle. But Ballmer told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that he would not want to move the Clippers, should he buy them, because that would hurt the team's value.
Brent Schrotenboer is an investigative and enterprise reporter for USA TODAY Sports. Contact him on Twitter or via e-mail.
GALLERY: Donald Sterling through the years
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1rmd2rS
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