Event class: company, sold, million, group, team, bought, club, business, owner, purchased

Events with high posterior probability

Paul Fletcher (footballer)	In October 2007 following a 9 month period of negotiations with various parties, Paul resigned in protest of the stadium's owners, Arena Coventry Limited, for their refusal to accept a purchase proposal from an American consortium for both the Ricoh Arena and Coventry City FC.
Anne Klein	The joint-venture never materialized as the margins were too thin ; however, Klein approached Taki to partner in the company and by 1973 Takihyo owned 25 % of the Anne Klein Company.
Thomas S. Ricketts	In April 2007, Sam Zell announced his intention to acquire the Chicago based Tribune Company.
Robert J. Parrillo	In 2009, Parrillo was among a ten-member group of investors (along with his brother William, Jim Tyree and Rocky Wirtz) that purchased the Sun-Times Media Group.
Wayne Huizenga	In 2001, he sold the Panthers to pharmaceutical juggernaut and friend Alan Cohen and his partner, former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, for a discount price.
Kjell Qvale	In 2003, Qvale sold the rights to the Mangusta to MG Rover Group.
Michael Waltrip	Waltrip welcomed business owner Robert Kaufmann, owner/founder of the Fortress Investment Group and was made an equal partner and got more aid with real estate developer Johnny Harris buying into the team during the 2007 off-season.
Harold E. Talbott	In 1955, the Chattanooga Times uncovered that Talbott was using Air Force stationary to solicit business for an engineering firm which he owned fifty percent of, from contractors who sold to the Air Force.
Friede Springer	Under her guidance, the Springer heirs bought back the company's shares from the two Burda brothers for about DM 531 million in 1988.
Terrence Pegula	On February 18, 2011, Pegula purchased Hockey Western New York LLC (the holding company that owns the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League) from previous owners Tom Golisano, Larry Quinn, and Dan DiPofi for $ 189 million.
Jordan Roth	Jordan Roth (born November 13, 1975) is the President and majority owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns and operates five Broadway theatres, including the St. James, Al Hirschfeld, August Wilson, Eugene O'Neill and Walter Kerr.
Erick Thohir	In September 2013, Internazionale club president and owner Massimo Moratti confirmed that he was in discussions to sell a majority 70 % stake in the club to Thohir.
Amanda Staveley	Also in 2008 Staveley fronted a bid by the Qatar Investment Authority to buy the Trillium facilities management business from the Land Securities property group, an offer reportedly totaling # 1.
Nick Mileti	7 million ; he eventually sold his twenty percent interest in the team in 1980 for $ 1.
Zygi Wilf	Wilf and five partners purchased the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League from Red McCombs in 2005 for a reported 600 million.
Frank Finnigan	When the NHL planned to expand in 1989, the consortium to obtain a franchise for Ottawa signed Finnigan to be part of the' Bring Back The Senators' campaign team.
John Jay Hooker	Hooker, however, sold his portion of the Banner in 1982 and became chairman for a period of United Press International, the historical but faltering competitor to the Associated Press in the wire-service news business.
Hilo Hattie	The store cites the name rights as having been obtained in 1979 with the purchase of Margolis Manufacturing and Retail Company (Hilo, Hawaii) from Richard and Evelyn Margolis.
George W. Bush	Bush's sale of his shares in the Rangers in 1998 brought him over $ 15 million from his initial $ 800,000 investment.
Larry Ellison	In June 2012, Ellison agreed to buy 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lana'i from David Murdock's company, Castle & Cooke.
Alex Spanos	In 1984 Spanos bought 60 % of the San Diego Chargers from majority owner Eugene Klein for $ 48.
Don Carter (businessman)	This initial investment in the team (US$ in today's terms) eventually earned him US$ 125 million (US$ in today's terms) when he sold the team in 1996 to an investment group led by H. Ross Perot, Jr..
Jonathan Edward Caldwell	In early 1928 he started another company in Nevada to raise funds to develop it, Gray Goose Airways', inc., issuing 10,000 shares of stock at ten cents per share, retaining a 51 percent interest.
David Dixon (businessman)	In 1996, Dixon announced the'' FanOwnership Football League'', whose teams played from September to March and would sell 70 percent of their stock to the general public.
Pat Bowlen	In 2004, Bowlen agreed to sell retired football legend John Elway a 10 % share in the team.
Firoz Kassam	Kassam sold the football club in 2006, but retained ownership of the stadium through his company Firoka with Oxford United (and later also London Welsh RFC) as tenants.
Robert Earl	In September 2010 Earl announced his latest brand extension with the news that Planet Hollywood International signed a license agreement with Wyndham Hotel Group granting them exclusive rights to franchise Planet Hollywood branded hotels and provide management services globally.
James E. Norris	When the NHL announced in 1926 that it would place a team in Chicago, Norris made a bid for the team, but lost to Frederic McLaughlin.
Kemmons Wilson	In July, 1974, Wilson, along with Isaac Hayes, Al Wilson (singer), Mike Storen and others, bought the Memphis Tams franchise in the American Basketball Association.
Anton Eilers	Anton, along with his financial backers, which included Walter Gurnee, Augustus C. Gurnee, and Abram S. Hewitt, created other smelters and other companies, until finally moving all their smelting assets into one large trust in 1899 : The American Smelting and Refining Company, now known as ASARCO.
Malcolm Glazer	Glazer purchased the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise on January 16, 1995, following the death of former owner, Hugh Culverhouse.
Nick Lachey	Lachey is part owner of the Hollywood Fame, a team in the American Basketball Association that began play in fall 2006, and was part of an ownership group of the Tacoma Rainiers, the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A affiliate.
Milton Petrie	In 1987, he began to acquire shares in Toys'' R'' Us for less than a dollar per share.
Cyclone Taylor	There is a chain of popular hockey equipment stores in Greater Vancouver named'' Cyclone Taylor Sports'', which were started by Taylor's oldest son, Fred Taylor Jr., in 1957.
Alan Cohen	In August 2000, Cohen sold 500,000 shares of Andrx stock for $ 43 million with the stated goal of leaving the company and bankrolling the purchase of a professional sports team.
Jodee Rich	When Steven Rich sold Traveland to Ansett in 1986, its chairman Sir Peter Abeles described him as'' an extremely shrewd businessman and a tough competitor.''
Balram Chainrai	In 2010 Balram Chainrai lent former owner Ali al-Faraj, whom he had never met, # 17 million.
Jeremy Hosking	In August 2010, Hosking was part of a four-man consortium which bought Selhurst Park, and then residents Crystal Palace football club out of administration, via the limited company CPFC 2010.
Finis L. Bates	In 1920, Bates tried to interest the automaker Henry Ford in buying it for $ 1,000, but Ford refused.
Oren Koules	On August 7, 2007, Absolute Hockey Enterprises, a group led by Doug MacLean that included Koules, announced it had signed a purchase agreement for the Tampa Bay Lightning from Palace Sports and Entertainment.
Charles Onyango-Obbo	With that, Onyango-Obbo decided to take up an earlier offer that Nation Media Group, which had taken a majority stake in The Monitor in March 2000, to move to Nairobi and initiate the group's media convergence operations.
George Argyros	Argyros had openly tried to purchase the San Diego Padres in 1987 and to sell the Mariners, but a final deal was never consummated with Padres owner Joan Kroc.
David Sullivan (publisher)	In September 2012 Sullivan revealed that together with Gold they were personally funding the club's transfer business because the ` cupboard was left bare' by its former Icelandic owners.
Albert Lasker	He acquired an interest in the team in 1916 and soon purchased majority control.
Washington McLean	Washington McLean bought out Farran in the 1860s and in 1872 sold a half interest in the newspaper to his son.
Pierre Andurand	As of 2012, he is also the Chairman and majority shareholder of Glory Sports International, the parent company of the Glory World Series international kickboxing league.
Jeffrey Loria	Loria lost out to Peter Angelos in his bid to purchase the Baltimore Orioles in 1994.
Leslie Alexander (businessman)	He sold the team to Hilton Koch in January 2007.
Haskell Cohen	He later teamed up with Cohen, NBA player Jack Twyman and hotel owner Milton Kutsher in 1958 to create the Maurice Stokes charity game.
Mike Ilitch	She acquired a significant interest in the Motor City Casino and, in 2005, purchased sole controlling interest.
Denis O'Brien	Telenor made a bid for control of the company, but O'Brien chose to sell to BT in 2000.
Christopher Bland	He was a Director of ITN and GMTV, and Chairman of Century Hutchinson, an LWT subsidiary When, after the 1993 franchise renewal, LWT was taken over by Granada in a hotly contested hostile bid, Bland became a millionaire.
Daniel Snyder	In October 2007, Snyder confirmed in London that he is'' actively looking for the right opportunity'' to enter into business in the Premier League, most likely through the outright purchase of a soccer club.
Jack Hayward	In May 2007 it was announced that he had sold control of the club to businessman Steve Morgan OBE for a nominal # 10 fee, in exchange for a conditional # 30m of investment in the club.
Bill Wyllie	The Wyllie Group focuses on real estate, including the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre which it co-owned (ABC Premium News,'' Convention Centre to boost tourism industry'' 26 August 2004, accessed through the Australia & New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCO) Wyllie also owned ten per cent of the Burswood Casino before selling his interest to Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited in 2004.
Thomas Sperry	In 1921, Hutchinson sued the estate of Thomas A. Sperry in court in Trenton, New Jersey, alleging that Sperry had defrauded Hutchinson of part of his shares in the company, allowing William M. Sperry, the brother of the founder, to gain control of the firm.
?milien Amaury	L'Équipe's finances were never secure and in 1968 Amaury bought an interest but maintained Goddet as editor.
Dan McGann	On July 17, 1902, Mahon sold his interest in the Orioles to Andrew Freedman, principal owner of the Giants, and John T. Brush, principal owner of the Cincinnati Reds, also of the NL.
Charles T. Fisher	In 1919, the Fisher brothers sold sixty percent of their company to General Motors Corporation (GM).
Fela Kuti	In 2013, FKO Ltd., the entity that owned the rights of all of Fela's compositions, was acquired by BMG Rights Management.
Mike Ashley (businessman)	Since the club's relegation, Ashley struggled to find a buyer capable of providing proof of funds to purchase Newcastle United F. C. Throughout August and September 2009, local businessman Barry Moat was reported to have opened negotiation talks with Ashley.
Dmitry Rybolovlev	In December 2011, Rybolovlev acquired a 66 % stake in asm-fc.
Fred Goodwin	After reaching # 18 a share (equivalent to # 6 per share after each share was split into three in May 2007), on the day of his departure it was announced that the share price was 65.
Donald Bren	By 1996, he had bought out all outstanding shares to become the sole owner.
Ken Wilson (sportscaster)	Wilson sold his ownership interest in that club in 2013.
Mike Ilitch	In 1982, Mike Ilitch bought the Red Wings from Bruce Norris for $ 8 million USD, and eventually turned the team into a perennial contender for the Stanley Cup.
Katrina vanden Heuvel	As an owner of The Nation, she is one of a group of investors brought together in 1995 by then-editor Victor Navasky in a for-profit partnership to buy the magazine then losing $ 500,000 a year from investment banker Arthur L. Carter.
Andrew Nikou	In 2008, Nikou negotiated the deal for OpenGate Capital to acquire TV Guide for $ 50 million in assumed liabilities from owner Rovi Corporation (previously Macrovision).
Mohamed Al-Fayed	In 1984, Fayed and his brothers purchased a 30 percent stake in House of Fraser, a group that included the famous London store Harrods, from Roland' Tiny' Rowland, the head of Lonrho.
Mike Ashley (businessman)	On 7 June 2007 it was confirmed that chairman Freddy Shepherd had agreed to sell his 28 % share to Ashley, which left Ashley free to take control of the club.
Linden Blue	He and his brother James Neal Blue acquired General Atomics in 1986 from Chevron for a reported $ 60 million.
John Y. Brown, Jr.	Following the 1972 -- 73 season, Cherry sold his interest in the Colonels to a group from Cincinnati, Ohio ; Brown immediately purchased Cherry's interest from the group, reportedly to keep the team from moving to Cincinnati.
Dock Ellis	Seeking more pitching in their pennant race, the Pirates purchased Ellis from the Mets on September 21, 1979 for an undisclosed sum of money ; the price was later revealed to be'' something in excess of the waiver price of $ 20,000''.
Kirk Kerkorian	In 2005, Kerkorian sold MGM once more to a consortium led by Sony.
Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber	In 2007, Al Jaber expanded the portfolio of the Guernsey-based JJW Hotels & Resorts group by acquiring The Eton Collection hotels for a reported # 70 million.
Valeri Belokon	In June 2008, Belokon sold his 30 % stake in the Latvian television station TV5 to the News Corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Mike Lynn	In December 1991, a group aligned with Lynn purchased the shares of feuding Vikings minority partners Irwin L. Jacobs and Carl Pohlad.
Lorenzo Sanz	He sold the club in 2010 to a Qatar i investor.
Mark Cuban	He had outbid a competing ownership group led by ex-pitcher and Rangers executive Nolan Ryan, but lost the deal before the Rangers played the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 World Series.
Albert J. Ruffo	He later became a part owner of the team and remained so for 24 years until it was sold to Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. in 1977.
Ernie Banks	In June 2006, Crain's Chicago Business reported that Banks was part of a group looking into buying the Chicago Cubs, in case the Tribune Company decided to sell the club.
Lachlan Murdoch	On 21 January 2008, Murdoch and James Packer announced that their companies, Illyria Pty Ltd and Consolidated Press Holdings would seek to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings which owns holdings in the Nine Network, Foxtel and Australian Consolidated Press.
John Rogers (baseball)	Reach and Rogers sold the Phillies to a group led by James Potter in February 1903, but retained the rights to the team's stadium, National League Park (which eventually became Baker Bowl).
Max Winter	He attempted to get an expansion team in the National Football League, when that failed Winter and his partners joined with the newly created American Football League in the fall of 1959.
Jeffrey Zients	In 2005, he worked to bring Major League Baseball back to Washington with venture capitalist Fred Malek forming the Washington Baseball Club, one of eight or nine groups vying to buy the Washington Nationals.
Chuck Greenberg (businessman)	Among his most prominent work as a sports industry attorney, Greenberg was instrumental in a deal that landed NHL Hall of Famer, Mario Lemieux, ownership of the then-bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team in 1999.
Dmitry Rybolovlev	Speaking to Paris Match in November 2013, Rybolovlev revealed that, before acquiring his stake in ASM, he once considered purchasing Manchester United.
Tom Hicks	Hicks moved from the business pages to the sports section in December 1995 when he bought the National Hockey League Dallas Stars for $ 82 million.
Isiah Thomas	Thomas purchased the CBA for $ 10 million, and in 2001 the league was forced into bankruptcy and folded, shortly after NBA Commissioner David Stern decided to create his own development league, the NBDL, to replace the CBA.
Howard Hughes	In 1948, Hughes gained control of RKO, a struggling major Hollywood studio, by acquiring 25 percent of the outstanding stock from Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation.
Charles Sumner Woolworth	In 1912, each of the owners in the syndicate of Woolworth affiliated stores agreed to incorporate all 596 of their stores, as one entity, as'' F. W. Woolworth Company''.
Andrew Freedman	With the financial backing of John T. Brush, principal owner of the Cincinnati Reds, Freedman purchased controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles of the rival American League (AL) on July 17, 1902.
George Brett	In 1998, an investor group headed by Brett and his older brother, Bobby, made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Kansas City Royals.
Herschel Walker	Walker signed with the New Jersey Generals in 1983, owned by Oklahoma oil tycoon J. Walter Duncan, who after the 1983 season sold the team to real-estate mogul Donald Trump.
Richard Desmond	On 23 July 2010, Desmond bought the UK terrestrial-television channel Channel 5, which was losing money, from the German group RTL, for # 103.
John W. Henry	Henry became the sole owner of the Florida Marlins in 1999, purchasing the Major League club from Huizenga for a reported $ 158,000,000.
Wally Karbo	In 1959, Dennis Stecher sold his majority stake in the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling club to Karbo and Gagne.
Tom Hicks	In 1999, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst entered into a partnership with Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, a successful Brazilian football club.
Frank McCourt (executive)	In 2004, McCourt bought the Los Angeles Dodgers for $ 430 million from NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch's flagship enterprise.
Doug Ellis	In 1996 Doug Ellis owned 47 percent of Aston Villa.