Hornets Sports and Entertainment (HSE) announced today that Chairman Michael Jordan has reached an agreement to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets to a group (“Buyer Group”) led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall.
Plotkin, who acquired a minority stake in the Hornets in 2019, has been an alternate governor on the NBA Board of Governors since 2019 and is the founder and chief investment officer of Tallwoods Capital LLC. Schnall is the co-chairman of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC, where he worked for 27 years, and has been a significant minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks and an alternate referee on the NBA Board of Governors since 2015. Schnall is in the process of selling his investment in the Hawks, which is expected to complete in the next several weeks.
The Buyer Group will also include Chris Shumway, Dan Sondheim, Ian Loring, Dyal HomeCourt Partners, North Carolina native recording artist J. Cole, singer-songwriter Eric Church, and several local Charlotte investors, including Amy Levine Dawson and Damien Mills.
As part of the deal, Jordan will retain a minority ownership stake in the team. The transaction is subject to approval by the NBA Board of Governors. Besides the Hornets, HSE’s ownership includes the Greensboro Swarm (NBA G League) and Hornets Venom GT (NBA 2K League), as well as management and operation of the Spectrum Center, each of which is included as part of the sale.