Atlanta Braves sale has been completed...

[HedleyLamarr]

....now just awaiting approval by MLB.

Deal to sell Braves finally done; now goes to MLB for OK

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 02/12/07

Time Warner agreed on terms of a sale of the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media and sent the deal to Major League Baseball for approval on Monday, team president Terry McGuirk told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The breakthrough came after about a year of negotiations between the two media companies on a complex deal in which Time Warner would swap the Braves and about $1 billion for a huge block of Time Warner stock long-held by Liberty.

Tax considerations motivated Liberty to do the deal, which is expected to come under close scrutiny from Major League Baseball because of its novel nature. Approval by 75 percent of the MLB owners is required for the deal to close. The approval process could take weeks or months.

"This is a very complicated deal that will take baseball some time to review and consider," McGuirk said in an exclusive interview Monday night. "Until we hear back from baseball, there is nothing further to do." Asked what he would say to Braves fans who might be concerned about a Colorado-based corporation buying Atlanta's baseball team for tax reasons, McGuirk said: "That is a really good question. My enthusiasm for this deal is the transparent way in which it will affect current Braves management. The expectation is that the entire structure of management will stay in place.

"[General manager] John Schuerholz and [manager] Bobby Cox and everyone else who operates the Atlanta Braves will operate no differently, and that'll be the

magic in this deal" Time Warner and Liberty declined to comment on Monday, but throughout the protracted process Liberty has indicated its intent would be to keep current Braves management, including McGuirk, in place. That could be key to its chances of getting MLB approval.

'No comment' from Selig

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last year that he hoped new Braves ownership would include some sort of local component. McGuirk said "no comment" Monday night when asked if he might have a minority ownership stake under Liberty.

Liberty is a publicly traded company with vast holdings in the media and entertainment industries. Its holdings include home-shopping network QVC, movie channels Starz Entertainment and, in a recent acquisition, satellite-TV provider DirecTV.

The company is controlled by chairman John Malone, a cable television pioneer who held a major stake in Turner Broadcasting before its sale to Time Warner.

Time Warner put the Braves up for sale in December 2005, and after negotiating for several months with other bidders -- including Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Atlanta real estate executive Ron Terwilliger -- turned its focus exclusively to the negotiations with Liberty in April 2006. The negotiations dragged out because of the difficulty of structuring a transaction within the rules of both MLB and the Internal Revenue Service.

Under federal tax law, the inclusion of an operating asset -- the Braves -- in the deal can make the transaction tax-free, potentially saving Colorado-based Liberty hundreds of millions of dollars in capital gains tax on the appreciation of its Time Warner stock.

Finally, on Monday, the companies got the last of voluminous terms on paper and moved into the next phase of the process: MLB approval.

MLB president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy told the AJC by e-mail Monday night that baseball's general counsel, Tom Ostertag, "did receive some papers [on the deal] today."

DuPuy detailed in the e-mail how MLB will process the deal: "It will be reviewed by our office, specifically the lawyers and financial folks. It will then be turned over to the ownership committee, who will meet with the buyers and interview them. Assuming a positive result there, [the committee] will issue a report to the [30] clubs. And then the Executive Council and clubs will review and vote in that order."

As for how long the process might take, DuPuy said: "Depending on the complexity of the documentation, that can be short or long. In the case of Fox buying the Dodgers, it was long. In the case of, for example, David Glass buying Kansas City, it was short."

McGuirk said there is "no way to speculate" on how long the process might take.

Typically, franchise sales are voted on at regularly scheduled meetings of the 30 owners. DuPuy noted that the next such meeting isn't until May, so "given the time of year, it is certainly possible this could be voted on by either conference call or special meeting."

It would not be unusual for MLB to raise concerns that require new issues to be negotiated between buyer and seller.

The only real deadline the parties have been operating under is a coming change in tax law that could require the deal to be altered if it isn't closed by mid-May.

[sacker12]

I'm glad that it is finally done. Now, hopefully they will raise the payroll.

[HedleyLamarr]

I doubt payroll's going to go up when the team continually (at least under TW's recent rule) lost money. I don't expect the payroll to stray very far away from $80 million, in either direction.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Goddamn it. Why don't we just sell the Falcons to Jerry Jones while we're at it.

[pagan696]

Goddamn it. Why don't we just sell the Falcons to Jerry Jones while we're at it.

Jerry Glanville would be a better option

[marlinfan]

These major corporations have a lackluster track record when it comes to running MLB teams.

[FiddySicks]

The Braves AND a billion dollars? That mustve been one big ass chunk of stock.

[TFoA]

Eh, still have no hopes of payroll going up. The only way I see that happening is if some Mr. Moneybags buys the team and wants to win right away.

So yeah, other than that, business as scheduled..

[Guest]

I'm gonna miss Braves games on TBS. Even as a Cubs fan, there's something fun about spending a lazy summer day with Skip, Pete, and/or Joe. It was like sitting in on your local broadcasts, with Skip telling viewers that there were plenty of seats available for today's game if you're in the Atlanta area. I hate that the Cubs are becoming just another team on a weak cable sports channel, and I hate that it's happening to the Braves too. Those two teams should have as close to 162 nationally televised ballgames as they can.