Tech entrepreneur Marc Lore and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez’s 30-day exclusive negotiating window to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves from Glen Taylor has ended without a formal deal.
Both sides are continuing to negotiate in good faith in an attempt to reach an agreement and it is possible that an extension to the window could be worked out, but one isn’t currently in place, sources told ESPN.
Taylor announced on April 10 he intended to sell the team to Lore and Rodriguez after meetings over the previous week. The purchase price was expected to be around $1.5 billion including debt, sources said, with Lore and Rodriguez becoming limited partners and buying pieces of the team in phases over the next two years and taking full control for the 2023-24 season. The Minnesota Lynx are expected to be included in the transaction.
Part of the talks over the past month have been centered on a guarantee that Taylor would transfer controlling ownership by a certain date, sources said.
Lore and Rodriguez met with Wolves personnel and toured team facilities in Minneapolis last month.
Taylor has entered into several exclusive negotiating windows with prospective owners over the past decade. Last year he entered one with a group led by former Memphis Grizzlies minority owner Daniel Straus, but those talks ultimately broke down.
Taylor, who saved the team from moving to New Orleans when he bought it in 1994, has told numerous news outlets that part of any sale agreement would be that the Wolves stay in Minneapolis. The team has a lease at the Target Center through 2035, but the buyout is just $50 million.