Billionaire investor David Rubenstein is in discussions to potentially acquire Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
Rubenstein, a Baltimore native and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, has been in talks to buy the Orioles for some time, but a deal does not appear to be imminent, the source said.
The Orioles, owned for the past three decades by Peter Angelos, did not respond to requests for comment. Rubenstein declined to comment.
The source described the talks between Rubenstein and the Orioles as “real,” though there are other potential suitors circling the team. “The cake is not baked,” the source told CNN.
News of Rubenstein’s discussions to buy the Orioles were previously reported by Bloomberg.
The Orioles are valued at $1.7 billion, up from about $620 million in 2014, according to Forbes. That makes Baltimore the 18th most valuable franchise in baseball, just ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies. The Orioles have been in negotiations with the state of Maryland over a new lease for their home stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Rubenstein, 74, is a longtime Orioles fan and best known for co-founding Carlyle, a Washington, DC-based private equity giant. Bloomberg reported that Rubenstein had also reportedly shown interest in buying the Washington Nationals.
The Orioles, who compete against the deep-pocketed New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the American League East division, are coming off their first 100-win season since 1980.
The potential sale of the Orioles comes after billionaire Mark Cuban reached a deal last month to sell his majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks to the Adelson family, the majority shareholders of casino giant Las Vegas Sands.
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