End of deal may be costly for TBS

Time Warner Inc's Turner Broadcasting System unit may lose $500 million after reneging on an oral agreement to sell Atlanta's professional basketball and hockey teams to former Dallas Mavericks part-owner David McDavid, according to a complaint that goes to trial next month.

TBS, the Atlanta-based operator of cable channels including Cable News Network and Turner Classic Movies, announced the sale of the National Basketball Association's Hawks and the Thrashers of the National Hockey League for about $250 million in 2003 to an investment group including Ted Turner's son and son-in-law.

McDavid said in a June 2005 complaint in Fulton County Superior Court that the company accepted, then spurned, his "nearly identical" offer.