The spat between Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder and his three minority partners appears to be nearing an end.
NFL reporter Ty Dunne tweeted Wednesday morning Snyder would buy out the 40 percent stake controlled by Frederick W. Smith (10 percent), Dwight Schar (15 percent), and Robert Rothman (15 percent), who had been looking to sell their stake since the spring of 2020.
Dunne reported the NFL finance committee had approved a “debt waiver” of $450 million for Snyder to fund the deal.
The report was confirmed by ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, who added, the deal was “not official yet” and will be finalized when the owners vote to approve it next week.
When the deal becomes official, Snyder will simultaneously end a months-long dispute with his minority partners and his family will assume 100 percent ownership of the franchise he bought a majority stake of in 1999.
Florio added the total sale of the stake would be $950 million, which is $50 million higher than a figure the minority owners accepted when they attempted to sell to a California-based investment group in late 2020. Snyder blocked the sale. (The New York Times reported the final figure to be $875 million.)
The deal could also have potential implications on the ongoing independent investigation into Washington's workplace culture conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson. According to Florio, Snyder's request to exceed the debt limit, and the league approving that move, is being interpreted as a sign that Snyder won't be forced to sell the team as a result of Wilkinson's investigation.
In reporting the buy-out Wednesday, The Times noted Snyder will gain “greater control over the organization while he pays a fine for executives’ misconduct,” a reference to the Wilkinson investigation.
In a statement to The Washington Post, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said the debt waiver and Wilkinson's investigation are “two separate matters,” and the review of the claims about the team’s workplace culture is ongoing.
Snyder and his minority owners had been locked in a months-long dispute that resulted in numerous lawsuits in federal court in America and at least one in India.
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In June of last year, Snyder kicked the three other owners off the team’s board, possibly as a result of them informing him of their desire to sell. A report from The New York Times in September indicated some of the minority owners may have soured on Snyder after he halted paying annual dividend checks.
In one case, from Nov. 2020, the minority owners sued Snyder over claims he had interfered with them selling their minority stake to a pair of California investors for a discounted price of $900 million.
Snyder countered by claiming in a suit filed in U.S. District Court that he is a victim of extortion and that minority team owner Dwight Schar was trying to force him to sell the franchise. This suit stems from reporting by The Post on the multiple allegations of sexual harassment and workplace culture which tolerated that kind of behavior.
Snyder alleged Schar had knowledge there was no evidence of wrongdoing but still “threatened to reveal [the settlement] to discredit me and embarrass my family, but which the insurance carrier decided to settle.”
In India, Snyder filed a defamation lawsuit, in which his attorneys claim the company, MEA WorldWide, published a series of false stories as a part of a smear campaign. That suit alleges the involvement of Schar and John Moag, the founder of Moag & Co., the Baltimore-based firm which was hired by the three minority owners to facilitate the sale of their stake.
Florio further reports Snyder, as part of the purchase, has agreed to waive any claims against his current minority partners, but not the defamation suit.
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Court documents, in that case, revealed Moag and former Washington team president Bruce Allen exchanged 87 phone calls for a total of more than 22 hours of conversation during a 10-month period from January to Nov. 2020.
According to an 18-page filing first reported by AJ Perez, the two also exchanged text and emails that “prove” the pair were “focused on negative publicity directed at” Snyder.
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