среда, 12 сентября 2012 г.

Source reports Checketts will bid on AOL pro teams - Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

NEW YORK -- Former Madison Square Garden President Dave Checkettswill bid to buy AOL Time Warner Inc.'s professional sports teams inAtlanta, Philips Arena and the Turner South television network, aperson familiar with the situation said.

The teams -- basketball's Hawks, hockey's Thrashers and baseball'sBraves -- are worth about $425 million combined, the person said. TheBraves, worth about $225 million, may not be included in a purchase.Billionaire George Soros is financing the bid, the person said.

Checketts, 47, began his career in professional sports as thepresident and general manager of the NBA's Utah Jazz. In 1994, he wasnamed president of Madison Square Garden, the Cablevision SystemsCorp. unit that operates the New York Knicks and Rangers, the arenaand Radio City Music Hall. He was fired in 2001 in a bid for morepower with Cablevision President Jim Dolan.

The offer comes as media companies such as AOL Time Warner, NewsCorp. and Walt Disney Co. are trying to sell the sports teams theyacquired in the 1990s to reduce debt or raise money for acquisitions.AOL Time Warner has said it wants to reduce its debt to $20 billionfrom $25.8 billion by the end of next year.

Stan Kasten, president of the Atlanta sports teams for AOL TimeWarner, declined to comment. Checketts didn't immediately return amessage left at his home.

Checketts will submit two bids on Friday, one including the Bravesand one without the winners of 11 straight division titles, theperson said. Checketts spent yesterday in Atlanta meeting withexecutives from AOL Time Warner, the world's biggest media company.

David McDavid, a former minority owner of the National BasketballAssociation's Dallas Mavericks, Monday made an offer of about $200million to buy the Hawks, Thrashers and arena, the person said.McDavid didn't return a telephone message left at his office.

Checketts also has a bid in to buy baseball's Los Angeles Dodgersfrom News Corp. Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer is thefrontrunner for the team, the Los Angeles Times reported.

News Corp. would be able to use the money from selling the Dodgerstoward planned acquisitions. For example, the company has said itmight bid for satellite cable provider DirecTV, a unit of GeneralMotors Corp.'s Hughes Electronics subsidiary.

Disney hired Lehman Brothers Inc. in September to find potentialbuyers for its teams in Anaheim, California: the World Serieschampion Angels and hockey's Mighty Ducks.

The Braves and Hawks became part of AOL Time Warner when it boughtTurner Broadcasting System Inc. in 1996. AOL Time Warner has been theonly owner of the Thrashers, an expansion team that began play forthe 1999-2000 season.

Former TBS owner Ted Turner had used his sports teams to provideprogramming for his cable-TV networks including TBS and TNT. TheHawks and Thrashers are losing a combined $75 million a year, theperson said.

Turner has said he doesn't plan to buy back the Braves, which heestimated could fetch as much as $400 million. Turner bought the teamfor about $10 million in 1976.

'I can't afford them,' Turner said last month.

Shares of AOL Time Warner were up 32 cents at $12.48 at 2:25 p.m.in New York Stock Exchange trading.