- The Haslam family will finalize buying a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, according to Bloomberg.
- They're swapping fuel pumps for courtside seats after selling their gas station business to Warren Buffett.
- They're poised to own 25% of the Bucks in a deal that values the NBA franchise at around $3.5 billion.
Jimmy and Dee Haslam are swapping fuel pumps for courtside seats.
Fresh from selling their gas station business to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in January, they'll finalize buying a minority stake in the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, according to a Bloomberg report that cited people familiar with the matter.
The Haslams agreed to buy billionaire investor Marc Lasry's 25% stake in the Bucks in a deal that values the NBA franchise at $3.5 billion back in February, per a previous Bloomberg report.
The family, which also owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns and the MLS franchise the Columbus Crew, recently handed majority ownership of the Pilot Travel Centers truck stop chain to Berkshire.
Berkshire purchased 38.6% of Pilot in 2017, and acquired another 41.4% of the business for about $8 billion in January, boosting its overall stake to 80%. The Haslam family retains control of Pilot's day-to-day operations.
A $3.5 billion valuation would make the Bucks the NBA's sixth-most valuable franchise behind the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, and Boston Celtics, according to Forbes' annual ranking of the world's most valuable sports teams.
Lasry and his team's biggest star, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, hit headlines earlier this month after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. That collapse sparked debate about the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's cap on insurance, set at $250,000 for each depositor at any one bank.
When Antetokounmpo first arrived in the US from Greece a decade ago and learned of the limit, the then-18-year-old opened accounts at half-a-dozen banks to ensure his money was safe – before Lasry told him to invest in US Treasurys and other assets instead.