Houston Restaurant Magnate Tilman Fertitta To Buy The Houston Rockets, Breaking NBA Record
Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta has reached an agreement with Leslie Alexander to purchase the Houston Rockets, sources close to the deal confirmed to KRIV's Mark Berman. Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick and the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen confirmed the report, though Bisnow was unable to reach Fertitta and Landry's for comment.
Tilman is expected to pay $2.2B, according to the source familiar with the deal, breaking the $2B record set by Steve Ballmer's purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Fertitta, a casino and restaurant magnate, has close ties to Houston and the Rockets. He once owned a minority interest in the team before current owner Leslie Alexander paid $85M to acquire it in 1993. In the first two years of Alexander's ownership, the team won the first two professional sports championships in Houston history. Fertitta has served as an adviser to the team for more than a decade, dating back to the Rockets' second championship in the 1994-1995 season. Landry's was a founding sponsor of the Toyota Center when it opened in 2003.
