Report: Snyder blocking minority owners from $900M sale
The Washington Football Team has received a $900-million offer from a group of investors from California for a 40% stake in the club, according to Will Hobson, Mark Maske, and Liz Clarke of The Washington Post. However, majority owner Daniel Snyder is refusing to accept the deal.
Washington's three minority shareholders - FedEx chief executive Fred Smith, real estate magnate Dwight Schar, and investor Robert Rothman - tentatively accepted the offer, per The Washington Post. However, Snyder is blocking the sale by trying to exercise his right of first refusal to buy back the franchise's minority shares before they're sold to other parties.
Snyder's refusal to accept the deal is part of a feud with one of the minority owners, notes The Washington Post. The majority owner has offered to acquire the 25% held by Smith and Rothman, but not the 15% held by Schar.
The interested buyers are Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano, co-founders of private equity firm Clearlake Capital, as well as Feliciano's wife, Kwanza Jones.
The minority owners reportedly sued Snyder on Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court in Maryland as an attempt to move the sale forward.
The group previously pressured Snyder to sell the franchise following a controversial offseason, which included the team's name change after corporate sponsors threatened to cut ties with the organization.
Washington is currently worth $3.5 billion, according to Forbes.
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