From an article by Bill Shanks:

Ted Turner told ABC's 'Good Morning America' Tuesday that he may have interest in purchasing the club from Liberty Media.

Turner was promoting his new book, 'Call Me Ted.' He told anchor Robin Roberts at the end of the interview that he was, "trying to earn enough money with my restaurants and my books to buy the Braves back."

So, is he promoting his book, or is he serious about buying back the team? His words seem to tell us that the two are linked -- buy my book so I'll have enough to buy the Braves. Humm.

(hat tip: Shaggy3391)

John Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, the conglomerate which owns the Atlanta Braves, sold about two-thirds of his stock in the company as part of a repurchase program. And like many things in this turbulent market, the reaction was not a good one:

The chairman of the media conglomerate sold 4.5 million shares of it on Thursday. [...] Malone got $11.00 per share for his sell-off, a 12.4% premium from the stock's closing price on Thursday. Investors of Liberty Media were put off by the chairman's lack of confidence in the company, sending shares down 38.9%, or $3.74, to trade at $5.90, on Friday afternoon.

This divestiture of company stock by its chairman seems to signal a move towards Liberty being even more of a corporate entity beyond the control of Malone. The article goes on to talk about Malone's future plans, another move that could affect the Braves:

In September, Malone revealed plans to spin off Liberty Entertainment from Liberty Media. Liberty Entertainment is currently a tracking stock. If the plan goes through, the new Liberty Entertainment would comprise roughly 50% of the DirecTV Group and all holdings belonging to Starz Entertainment, FUN Technologies and Liberty Sports Holdings. It would also include 50% of GSN and 37% of WildBlue Communications.

The listing of "Liberty Sports Holdings" seems to indicate that the Braves would be a part of this new spin-off company. We've been told from the beginning of this purchase that Liberty Media's swap-purchase of the Atlanta Braves was simply a short-term marriage of convenience, and that once the tax-loophole restrictions had run out in several years the company would be put back up for purchase to, presumably, a single buyer. The creation of this new company, Liberty Entertainment, seems to signal a possibility that Liberty plans to hold onto the Braves longer than originally planned -- making it a key piece of this new entity.

This move and the actions of Liberty are of great concern to many Braves fans who view the control of the team by a faceless corporation as an impediment to the kind of attention and financial flexibility an individual owner would likely bring to the franchise.

Several months ago when we were hearing that the company named Liberty Media wanted to purchase the Braves in some sort of convoluted tax swap, I think most fans moaned and slumped in their chair and thought, "here comes another 'corporation' looking to try and cash in on the Braves at the possible expense of staying competitive." At least that's what I thought. I wasn't too thrilled about the team being "the player to be named later" in a larger corporate deal.

But all that is changing as the weeks pass and we see a return to the style exhibited by the Ted Turner owned Braves of the early `90s. Gone are strict budget caps. Gone are corporate approvals for big deals. Gone are the shackles which Schuerholz and company have apparently operated under for much of the last seven or eight years. Braves team president Terry McGuirk lays it out in this very reassuring notes column by Mark Bowman:

That should put a smile on the fact of every Braves fan. Apparently we have Uncle Bud to thank for much of this newfound flexibility and freedom. During the complicated corporate exchange the Braves endured, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig made sure that they wouldn't be left in the lurch. He made sure that one of the signature baseball franchises of the past two decades wouldn't be chopped up and skimmed for profit.

The result it seems is that through all the angst and controversy surrounding the sale of the team, the Braves are actually much better off. They shed their uncaring corporate parent for what seems like a trust fund style arrangement which leaves the baseball decisions entirely up to baseball people. In that way, we may have one of the best arrangements in all of sports - a completely unmeddlesome owner. And the fruits of that arrangement were seen last week when the Braves made the biggest moves they ever had at the trade deadline.

Every GM on every team is dedicated to winning it all, but far too often they are shackled by the limitations placed on them by higher-ups. The Braves have freed themselves from much of what may have shackled them the last several years.

Here is some breakingish news from the Braves PR Department:

I'm not sure how to feel about this. We've known it was coming, and now that it has come and gone I'm glad that the "brain trust" will remain in place - that's Liberty Media making good on its first promise about the team. Now we'll see if they keep payroll stable or decrease it (or increase it - which would be nice). I guess my overall feeling is, "yippee, out team is moving from one corporate entity to another, how exciting!?&%?" There's really not much else to say! Only time will tell how they are really going to operate/manage the Braves.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Time Warner has "finally" reached a deal to sell the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media. ESPN has the story here, but there is as yet no mention of it at WSJ.com. The story cites "an unnamed person familiar with the deal," so let's hope deep throat is right about this and a deal has been reached.

While this at least removes the cloud of who will own the team this season, it replaced it with another cloud of what will Liberty Media and CEO John Malone do with the team. We can only hope that when they finally officially announce the deal, Liberty will accompany that announcement with another detailing what they have in store for the budget and operation of the Braves - mainly so we don't have bloody speculate for days or weeks.

It's gonna be an interesting next couple of days...

Update [2007-2-13 9:51:0 by gondeee]:

From the AJC:

So it looks like we are in another holding pattern. Who knows how Selig and the owners will react to this type of deal – it is rather unprecedented for baseball. I’ll post more when we know more, but for now it’s just guess work.

Title of this post: Braves Sale Nearing Completion

Other title I could have used: Braves Sale Nearing Completion?

We finally get some minor inkling that the deal between Time Warner and Liberty Media may be nearing completion, this comes to us from the New York Times (hat tip: Rowland's Office):

Yes, we know, it's been dragging on for what seems like ever. For those of you who don't know what's at stake in this "swap" here are the particulars:

It feels like the Braves are "the team to be named later;" the Crash Davis among the throngs of doubloons changing hands. One can almost see the topic of adding the Braves to this deal coming up over brandy one evening.

Time Warner Exec: Yes John, we'd love to have $1.8 billion dollars worth of our stock back.
John Malone: Keep in mind I want plenty of cash in return, but I also don't want that damned IRS to take any of it. It's my money, mine.
Time Warner Exec: Would you like one of our networks, perhaps you'd enjoy the Cartoon Network.
John Malone: No, they're all a bunch of damned terrorists.
Time Warner Exec: How about HBO? You like movies right?
John Malone: No, I'm more of a Skinemax kind of guy.
Time Warner Exec: Hummm.
John Malone: I like hot dogs...
Time Warner Exec: Hey! What would you say to a whole bunch of hot dog stands?
John Malone: Really! What are these stands called, where are they?
Time Warner Exec: They're called the Ted and they're in a stadium thingy we own in Atlanta.
John Malone: Oh really, Atlanta. Could I move it to somewhere nicer like Milwaukee?
Time Warner Exec: No actually, this stadium is where this team plays called the Braves. They're a baseball team, perhaps you've heard of them.
John Malone: Have they ever been on Skinemax after dark?
Time Warner Exec: I don't think so, but they're a baseball team, they play baseball...
John Malone: Is that like foosball?
Time Warner Exec: Um...yes.
John Malone: Sweet!
Time Warner Exec: Hell yeah it's sweet!
John Malone: Okay, so I get the cash, those hot dog stands, and this Braves thingy, and I'm not paying any taxes, right?
Time Warner Exec: Yep. But it's going to take a lot of lawyers to figure this one out.
John Malone: Well, how much am I saving on taxes with this?
Time Warner Exec: Probably something like $200 million.
John Malone: Well, there you go; spend that on lawyers.
Time Warner Exec: That's a lot to spend on lawyers.
John Malone: Hey, if they can make it so I don't have to pay any taxes then they're worth-it.
Time Warner Exec: Right, but...
John Malone: Shh, they're worth it.