Just when you think Charles Wang has made enough of a fool out of himself and the New York Islanders, he has to go and prove us wrong.
We already know that Wang is being sued by a hedge fund manager, Andrew Barroway, for pulling out of a handshake agreement to sell the Islanders. Wang entered into negotiations with Barroway last year, allegedly agreeing on a sale in the $420 million range and even hammered out a 70-page purchase-and-sale agreement. With both working on various financing and approvals, the document was never fully executed.
From there, it gets wacky: Barroway claims that Wang suddenly upped his asking price to $548 million and then informed Barroway that he was selling the team to a different group, led by former Washington Capitals co-owner Jon Ledecky and London-based Scott Malkin (though the price hasn’t been disclosed, it’s believe to be around that $548 million mark). Barroway sued and here we are. Because there were no contracts, Barroway isn’t likely to get what he wants (the team at $420 million) but could stand to make a few bucks thanks to some bad faith negotiating on the part of Wang.
That’s crazy enough…until now. Fortune learned that Wang apparently was also negotiating to sell the team to a Boston-based investment firm called Peak Ridge Captial. These negotiations came even before the Barroway talks.
Wang told Peak Ridge they had a deal at $508 million, right around the time he upped the asking price from Barroway. Shortly after that, thinking they had a deal and that the documents would be executed once Wang returned from vacation, Peak Ridge learned about Ledecky and Malkin. Peak Ridge CEO Mike McNally confirmed that he had been in negotiations with Wang and felt the two had a deal.
Naturally, Wang won’t admit to anything. He’ll battle Barroway in court and could be fortunate that Peak Ridge doesn’t seem interested in suing. The one thing to wonder: did the NHL have any knowledge of Wang’s dealings? If they did, that could make things a little bit more difficult when a prospective buyer comes into play in the future for any other franchise.
For the sake of the Islanders, let’s hope this mess goes away soon. For a team finally on the rebound on the ice, the last thing they need is to be dragged through the tabloids by their “eccentric” owner.
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