Tag: steve ballmer
Appeals Court Denies Sterling Bid To Block Clippers Sale

Appeals Court Denies Sterling Bid To Block Clippers Sale

Los Angeles (AFP) — A California appeals court rejected Donald Sterling’s last-ditch bid to scupper the sale of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Sterling had filed the petition on Tuesday, the day the National Basketball Association announced that Ballmer’s $2 billion purchase of the club had been finalized.

Ballmer said he was “humbled and honored” after the transaction was sealed when a California court order went into effect confirming that his wife Shelly Sterling had the authority to sell the team.

The court of appeal ruled that there was no basis for an order blocking the deal and noted that the sale had already closed.

“Thus, there is nothing for this court to stay,” the court said in the ruling on Wednesday.

“Even if the sale had not closed… petitioner has failed to show that the balancing of the relative harm favors granting a temporary stay.”

The team went on the block after the NBA slapped a life ban on Donald Sterling, who bought the club in 1981 for $12.5 million.

The action was in response to a video aired on celebrity website TMZ that showed Donald Sterling criticizing his girlfriend for having her picture taken with black people.

In the storm that followed, the 80-year-old billionaire initially agreed to the sale of the team, but then abruptly withdrew his support.

His wife, however, moved to sell the Clippers as a trustee of the family trust that owned the team after Sterling had been declared mentally incapacitated.

The NBA board of governors had previously approved the sale and Ballmer now takes on the title of Clippers governor.

Ballmer’s attorney Adam Streisand said in a statement that he has no doubt Donald Sterling will appeal to the Supreme Court, but said he was “supremely confident” that the sale is sealed and Ballmer is now the “undisputed owner” of the Clippers.

AFP Photo/Robyn Beck

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Sterling Backs Clippers Sale, Won’t Pursue Lawsuit

Sterling Backs Clippers Sale, Won’t Pursue Lawsuit

Los Angeles (AFP) – Banned owner Donald Sterling backs the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, and will drop his lawsuit against the NBA, his lawyer said.

Attorney Maxwell Blecher confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that Sterling planned to drop the lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages that he filed against the league on Friday.

That suit, which also named NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as a defendant, alleged breach of contract and anti-trust and civil rights violations.

It was filed in U.S. federal court in Los Angeles shortly before the NBA said it approved the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer and would ask the board of governors to vote on it.

Sterling’s wife Shelly, acting as head of the Sterling family trust, had negotiated the blockbuster deal with Ballmer, pushing it through before the league concluded action to strip the club from the Sterlings.

The league canceled a hearing on whether to oust Donald Sterling over racially charged remarks he made to a girlfriend that sparked outrage when they became public in April.

Silver had already banned him for life from all NBA activities, and fined the real estate billionaire $2.5 million.

Donald Sterling had told Los Angeles television station NBC4 late Tuesday that he was ready to “move on.”

Appearing at a charity event, Sterling said he was content with the deal his wife had struck.

“I feel fabulous, I feel very good,” Sterling said. “Everything is just the way it should be, really. It may have worked out differently, but it’s good. It’s all good.”

As a condition of the sale to Ballmer, the NBA said last week that Shelly Sterling had indemnified the league against further legal action in relation to the case.

Therefore, even if the notoriously litigious Donald Sterling pursued and won a case against the league, the damages would have been paid by the trust.

Three quarters of the remaining 29 owners must still approve the sale to Ballmer before it becomes official.

The price tag, for a team that has never won a championship, would set an NBA record — well above the record $550 million paid for the Milwaukee Bucks in April.

It would mark a massive financial return for the 80-year-old Sterling on a club he purchased in 1981 for just $12 million.

The 58-year-old Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft from 2000 until February this year, had tried before to buy an NBA club, hoping to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle.

Last week, Ballmer was at pains to reassure Clippers fans that he didn’t intend to move the club.

Clippers supporters as well as players were thrown into turmoil when Sterling’s comments, chastising girlfriend V. Stiviano for publicizing her association with black friends, became public.

Sponsors fled, and in a country that grapples with issues of race, the controversy clouded the Clippers’ run to the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Photo: Robyn Beck via AFP