Glen Taylor has agreed to a resolution with the Marc Lore-Alex Rodriguez group regarding their dispute over ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Lore and Rodriguez are acquiring 100% ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx at the same $1.5 billion price tag the sides reached in 2021. As part of the agreement, Taylor decided not to appeal an arbitrators’ ruling from February that ruled in favor Lore-Rodriguez in a dispute over the sale contract. The NBA has started the transfer process, including ultimately holding a Board of Governors vote.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania: “After years long battle, Glen Taylor and Marc Lore-Alex Rodriguez have agreed to complete full ownership to Lore-Rodriguez, sources tell ESPN. Taylor will not appeal Minnesota arbitrators that ruled in favor of Lore-Rodriguez in February. NBA will start transfer process.”
Per Charania, Taylor will not appeal the Minnesota arbitration decision that ruled in favor of Lore and Rodriguez in February. Lore and Rodriguez will acquire 100% ownership of the Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx for $1.5 billion, the price the two sides agreed on in 2021.
Taylor, 83, purchased the Wolves in 1994 for $94 million, saving the team from a possible relocation to New Orleans. He put the team on the market and pulled it over several times over the last two decades. Lore and Rodriguez initially agreed to purchase the team from Taylor in 2021 in a three-part sale. The first two tranches, totaling 36% of the teams, changed hands for about $500 million as planned. But in March 2024, Taylor called off the sale when he believed Lore and Rodriguez breached terms of the sale agreement and missed a deadline to finalize the deal. There was a disagreement and the issue eventually went to arbitration, which Lore and Rodriguez eventually prevailed in a split decision among a three-judge panel.
Over the last six weeks, the Lore-Rodriguez group and Taylor held discussions and came to an agreement to finalize the deal. In the meantime, Lore and Rodriguez continued to add new partners to their group including billionaire (and former New York City mayor) Michael Bloomberg, billionaire former Google executive Eric Schmidt and Blue Owl Capital – an NBA-approved private equity fund. The group raised an additional $950 million and put it in escrow to demonstrate they were prepared to execute the transaction.
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