The majority owner of the Washington Football Team, Dan Snyder, has agreed to buy the shares owned by the team’s limited members, a league spokesman said. putting an end to a board fight within an NFL franchise that is involved in controversy on several fronts.
Minority owners – the chief executive of FedEx Corp. Fred Smith, the chairman of Black Diamond Capital, Robert Rothman and Dwight Schar, the chairman of NVR Inc. – were trying to sell their stakes in the team, worth approximately 40% of the club, but the process, instead, produced a firefight between the parties.
The limited partners took Snyder to arbitration, claiming that he had violated the shareholders’ agreement, and the dispute became more and more unpleasant over the months. After taking him to court, Snyder’s lawyers accused minority owners of trying to force Snyder to sell the team and engage in a smear campaign against him when he refused.
The sale, which was first reported by golongtd.com and yet to be approved by the owners at a next meeting, it will give Snyder and his family full control of the franchise he first bought in 1999.
A spokeswoman for the team declined to comment on the sale. An NFL spokesman said the league’s finance committee approved a $ 450 million debt waiver to help facilitate the deal. The New York Times reported that the sale was $ 875 million.