Dan Snyder, majority shareholder of the Washington Football Team, has agreed to buy the shares of the team’s limited partners, a league spokesman said. End a boardroom feud in an NFL franchise mired in controversy on many fronts.
The Minority Owners – FedEx Corp. chief executive Fred Smith, Black Diamond Capital chairman Robert Rothman and Dwight Schar, the chairman of NVR Inc. – had tried to sell their stake in the team, worth about 40% of the club, but the lawsuit instead sparked a shootout between the parties.
The limited partners had brought Snyder to arbitration for alleging he violated their shareholders’ agreement, and the feud grew more and more annoying over the months. After taking him to court, Snyder’s lawyers accused the minority owners of forcing Snyder to sell the team and run a smear campaign against him when he refused.
The sale, which was first reported by golongtd.com and has yet to be approved by the owners at an upcoming meeting, will put Snyder and his family in full control of the franchise he first bought in 1999.
A team spokeswoman declined to comment on the sale. An NFL spokesman said the league’s finance committee approved a $ 450 million waiver to ease the deal. The New York Times reported sales were $ 875 million.