AJC - Deal Almost complete

[DXS]

I'm a long time hawks fan. I just found out about this forum. I found this article at AJC.COM.

David McDavid expressed confidence Friday that his deal to buy the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena operating rights from AOL Time Warner will be completed soon.

"We think the deal is practically done," McDavid said from his Fort Worth home. "We are at what I would call the 'ticking and tying' stage now . . . working out the details."

As for predicting when the deal will be finished, McDavid said: "Tell you the truth, we are at such a close stage, I'm a very poor guesser. It could be as early as the first of July, or it could be mid-July, but I think it's going to happen very quickly."

Since McDavid signed a letter of intent on April 30 to buy the teams and the Philips rights from AOL for $350 million to $400 million, lawyers -- his in Pittsburgh and AOL's in New York -- have been negotiating a definitive final agreement.

During these 7 1/2 weeks, according to people familiar with the process, numerous issues have had to be worked through, typically with multi-million dollar ramifications. Much time also has been devoted to due diligence work on McDavid's behalf.

"It just grinds you down," McDavid said of the process.

The Texas auto dealer had hoped to complete the deal by June 14, when, under terms of the letter of intent, his exclusive negotiating period with AOL expired. However, he and the company verbally agreed to continue exclusive negotiations.

McDavid said he has been "covered up" with correspondence from people who want to work for the Hawks and Thrashers, "but we're in a posture where we can't do anything, can't talk to anybody" until the deal is completed and approved by the NBA and NHL.

[beav]

Welcome and thanks for the good news!

[JaHawk10]

Welcome aboard DXS. Thanks for the info. That article makes things look a lot brighter. If the deal will be done by July 1 or so, that means we can go ahead and make this coaching/GM? move and still be a player in the FA and trade game. I just realized the only teams now with coaching "vacancies" left are us and the Clippers. They seem very interested in Dunleavy, which is a good thing. If he goes there that will still leave us to choose between guys like Fratello and Carlisle. If we get one of those guys after this long @$$ sale process, thats not too shabby...