ATL: Ludacris And Jermaine Dupri Perform At Atlanta Hawks Game / Sara Blakely among group buying Atlanta Hawks for $850M / Shaqtin A Fool – Ludacris Edition

                  

Ludacris and Jermaine Dupri provided the half time entertainment at  the Atlanta Hawks playoff game as they preformed Welcome To Atlanta last night. The Hawks are now up 2-0 over the Brooklyn Nets.

ATLANTA (USA Today) — The Atlanta Hawks ownership group announced Wednesday evening that a definitive agreement has been reached for the sale of the franchise to an ownership group led by billionaire equity and investment fund manager Antony Ressler.
Ressler’s group, which includes former NBA player Grant Hill, Jesse Itzler, the co-founder of Marquis Jet, BTIG co-founder Steven Starker, and the founder of Atlanta-based Spanx, Sara Blakely, will buy the Hawks from Bruce Levenson, Michael Gearon Jr., and other investors for $850 million.
Levenson, Gearon and others purchased the Hawks, the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers and operating rights to Philips Arena for $250 million in in 2004 and sold the Thrashers for $170 million in 2011. The Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg.
Ressler wanted to buy the Los Angeles Clippers a year ago, but his group didn’t want to go as high as Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion offer.
Ressler, a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers moved quickly after the Junior Bridgeman-Grant Hill group fell out of the process. But Hill still wanted to be involved and joined Ressler’s group. Hill is expected to have just a small stake in ownership but he must own at least 1%, per a new rule NBA established by current owners.

11ALIVE
Atlanta Hawks 2015 Postseason

Levenson announced he would sell his share of team in September – the fallout from the release of racially insensitive e-mails written by Levenson and made public following the racially insensitive comments Hawks general manager Danny Ferry made out Luol Deng during free agency discussions.
In January, Michael Gearon Jr., the other significant portion of the Hawks ownership group, announced he would sell his share of the team.
Ferry, who went to Duke, took an indefinite leave of absence and hasn’t returned to the team. He would like to keep his job, and the involvement of Hill, who also went to Duke, might bolster Ferry’s chances of remaining with the team.
The Hawks won a franchise-record 60 games and are the top seed in the East but were 17th in attendance per game and are expected to lose money this season. New local and national TV deals will help the franchise’s financial situation, and the new owners will look to attract investment from area Fortune 500 companies.