• Former Microsoft chief executive succeeds with $2bn offer
• Clippers up for sale after NBA banned Sterling for racism
• Group including Oprah Winfrey made $1.5bn bid
Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has bought the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers franchise for $2bn, a record for a professional basketball team, sole trustee Shelly Sterling has announced.
In a news release from Greenberg Glusker, Sterling's counsel, she said she had signed a binding contract to sell the team to Ballmer on behalf of the Sterling Family Trust, which owns the club.
"I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner. We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."
The agreement will need to be approved by the National Basketball Association's board of governors before it is finalised. The NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I will be honoured to have my name submitted to the NBA board of governors for approval as the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. I love basketball," Ballmer said in a statement. "And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win – and win big – in Los Angeles."
On Thursday, Ballmer outbid two groups, one led by media mogul David Geffen that offered $1.6bn and included TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Oracle chief executive, Larry Ellison, a source close to the process told Reuters. A group of Los Angeles investors also bid $1.2bn for the team.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as the financial adviser in the deal, Sterling's statement said.
The Clippers came up for sale after the NBA banned owner Donald Sterling for life because of racist remarks he made in a recorded conversation that was leaked last month to the entertainment news website TMZ.
Donald Sterling's lawyer, Maxwell Blecher, told the New York Times earlier that he would have to approve the sale. Blecher did not immediately respond to request for comments on Friday.
Ballmer's winning bid was raised from an initial $1.8bn offer made earlier on Thursday, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If approved, the deal would be second only to the $2.15bn paid in 2012 for baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers.
"It's no wonder the prices are so high," said sports consultant Ed Desser, a former president of NBA Television and New Media Ventures. "There just aren't enough teams for all the billionaires who want them."
Sterling, a Los Angeles-area real estate developer, paid $12.5m in 1981 for the Clippers, which were then located in San Diego.
Ballmer, 58, who retired as head of Microsoft in February, remains on the board and still owns about 4% of the software giant, worth $13.4bn.
Last year, he joined a group that unsuccessfully bid on the Sacramento Kings basketball team. A long-time basketball fan, until a few years ago he played a regular pickup game with colleagues at a public gym near the Microsoft campus.
It is unclear how the team's potential sale will affect a 3 June hearing the NBA scheduled at which Donald Sterling can address the accusations against him. At that meeting, the owners could force him to sell the team on a vote by 23 of the remaining 29 owners, the NBA has said.
Blecher said in an interview with CNN that his client was prepared to fight the charges, but that he intended to wait for communication from the NBA before deciding when and whether to do so.
• Clippers up for sale after NBA banned Sterling for racism
• Group including Oprah Winfrey made $1.5bn bid
Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has bought the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers franchise for $2bn, a record for a professional basketball team, sole trustee Shelly Sterling has announced.
In a news release from Greenberg Glusker, Sterling's counsel, she said she had signed a binding contract to sell the team to Ballmer on behalf of the Sterling Family Trust, which owns the club.
"I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner. We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."
The agreement will need to be approved by the National Basketball Association's board of governors before it is finalised. The NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I will be honoured to have my name submitted to the NBA board of governors for approval as the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. I love basketball," Ballmer said in a statement. "And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win – and win big – in Los Angeles."
On Thursday, Ballmer outbid two groups, one led by media mogul David Geffen that offered $1.6bn and included TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Oracle chief executive, Larry Ellison, a source close to the process told Reuters. A group of Los Angeles investors also bid $1.2bn for the team.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as the financial adviser in the deal, Sterling's statement said.
The Clippers came up for sale after the NBA banned owner Donald Sterling for life because of racist remarks he made in a recorded conversation that was leaked last month to the entertainment news website TMZ.
Donald Sterling's lawyer, Maxwell Blecher, told the New York Times earlier that he would have to approve the sale. Blecher did not immediately respond to request for comments on Friday.
Ballmer's winning bid was raised from an initial $1.8bn offer made earlier on Thursday, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If approved, the deal would be second only to the $2.15bn paid in 2012 for baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers.
"It's no wonder the prices are so high," said sports consultant Ed Desser, a former president of NBA Television and New Media Ventures. "There just aren't enough teams for all the billionaires who want them."
Sterling, a Los Angeles-area real estate developer, paid $12.5m in 1981 for the Clippers, which were then located in San Diego.
Ballmer, 58, who retired as head of Microsoft in February, remains on the board and still owns about 4% of the software giant, worth $13.4bn.
Last year, he joined a group that unsuccessfully bid on the Sacramento Kings basketball team. A long-time basketball fan, until a few years ago he played a regular pickup game with colleagues at a public gym near the Microsoft campus.
It is unclear how the team's potential sale will affect a 3 June hearing the NBA scheduled at which Donald Sterling can address the accusations against him. At that meeting, the owners could force him to sell the team on a vote by 23 of the remaining 29 owners, the NBA has said.
Blecher said in an interview with CNN that his client was prepared to fight the charges, but that he intended to wait for communication from the NBA before deciding when and whether to do so.
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