Joseph Tsai purchasing 49% stake in Nets

As reported by Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Joseph Tsai, co-founder of e-commerce goliath AliBaba, is purchasing the 49% stake in the Brooklyn Nets from Mikhail Prokhorov. The deal includes an option that will let Tsai become the controlling owner of the team in the coming years. Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov will remain the controlling owner of the team at least for the next four years with a presumption that he will sell his majority stake upon the triggering of Tsai's option.

The purchase price will be based upon a $2.3 billion valuation of the team. In the deal, there won't be included any stakes of the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Nets' state of the art arena, which will remain in full control of Mikhail Prokhorov. Tsai, for the moment, won't have any kind of power in basketball decisions, whose remain under control of Prokhorov and his men.