Steve Ballmer will be writing a hefty check soon.
The Los Angeles Times reports the former Microsoft CEO won the bidding war for the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday after the Sterling family trust agreed to sell the team to Ballmer for $2 billion.
The sale must be approved by the National Basketball Association board of governors before Ballmer can move forward with acquiring the team.
Clippers owner Donald Sterling was recorded making racist comments toward blacks and other classy comments about women by his girlfriend V. Stiviano back in April. Following the release of the recordings, the NBA banned Sterling for life and fined him a hefty $2.5 million.
Since the scandal broke, the future ownership of the Clippers has been in question. Initially, Sterling said he would not sell the Clippers. The team is owned by the Sterling Family Trust and half of the ownership is controlled by Sterling’s wife, Shelly. Shelly wanted to move forward with the sale of the Clippers, which Sterling initially resisted. Sterling then announced he would hand complete ownership of the team over to his wife so she could move forward with the sale.
In May they announced they would be getting a divorce.
The bidding process included billionaires like David Geffen, Larry Ellison and Oprah Winfrey. Steve Ballmer came out on top with a bid of $2 billion, which is the second highest bid for a sports team in North America behind the sale of the Dodgers in 2012 for $2.1 billion.
The announcement of sale is most likely a relief for Shelly Sterling and the NBA.
“I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner,” Shelly Sterling said. “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.”