Hockey - Blackberry CEO to Buy the Penguins

Balsillie, co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion Ltd, which is famous for the Blackberry wireless messaging device, signed an agreement to buy the Penguins from Mario Lemieux's group for approximately $175 million. The deal, which still needs to get the approval of the NHL, was reached only two months after Toronto-based business executive Sam Fingold reached a preliminary agreement to buy the team but could not complete it.

Balsillie promised he is committed to keeping the Penguins in Pittsburg. The NHL had all but mandated that the franchise cannot move as long as a new arena is built. Mellon Arena, opened in 1961, is the NHL's oldest and least fan-friendly, a 1950s design still in use a half-century later. The Penguins have an agreement with the Isle of Capri casino chain to build a brand new $295 million arena at no expense to the team or taxpayers is part of the holdup. But Governor.. Ed Rendell and county and city officials prefer the Penguins agree now to an alternate plan to fund the arena. The project with the Casino is still conditional of a license for slot machines in the downtown of Pittsburgh. The state has already earmarked some funds for that project, partly on property the Penguins acquired in anticipation of a new building. Whatever the way the project will be financed, a new arena will be built

Balsillie's company is based in Waterloo, Ontario, not far from Hamilton, which has been seeking an NHL team for a long time already. But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced this week that the league is intent on keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh as long as a new arena is built.

The Penguins, two-time Stanley Cup champions in the 1990s, were purchased in federal bankruptcy court in 1999 by a group led by Lemieux. Balsillie, the 45-year-old executives, has not mentioned any prospective partners, and he apparently intends to purchase the team by himself.