The Seattle consortium trying to buy the NBA Kings on Friday announced that it has "raised" its offer for the team by $25M, taking the bid to $550M. The announcement "came hours after" Sacramento's investor group "made it clear it would match" the Seattle group's original offer of $525M to buy the team from Owner the Maloof family. Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen, who is leading the Seattle bid, unveiled the news on its website, SonicsArena.com. The increased offer "implies that the payout to the Maloofs would actually increase by $16 million -- to a total of $357 million." A source on Friday said that the Sacramento bidders would "equal the original bid the Maloofs accepted from Hansen." Another source on Friday said that the Maloofs were "still awaiting a formal purchase offer from the Sacramento group," but added that the Maloofs were "considering extending" their original 8:00pm ET Friday deadline for getting a formal bid from Sacramento. Another source said meeting the Maloofs' deadline "is not an NBA requirement" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 4/13).
