Computer Associates CEO Charles Wang will announce either Thursday or Friday that he has purchased the Islanders, The Post learned last night.
The announcement will be made at a press conference in Nassau County, most likely at the fashionable Garden City Hotel. Wang, a billionaire who lives in Nassau County, will buy the club from Ed and Howard Milstein and Steven Gluckstern for close to $180 million. An impeccable source said that Wang intends to build up the Islanders, who finished the season Sunday out of the playoffs for the sixth straight year.
The sale confirms The Post’s exclusive report on March 9 that Wang was interested in purchasing the club. A contract finalizing the sale had not been signed as of last night, The Post has learned.
Wang, who was in New Orleans yesterday at a Computer Associates conference, did not return a call from The Post.
An Oyster Bay Cove resident, Wang intends to develop a new Coliseum, a convention center and a hotel on the 70-acre Coliseum site. However, Wang is buying the club without having completed specific plans on developing the site, a source said.
In addition, Wang has not come to terms with SMG, the company that manages the Coliseum, about buying out SMG’s Coliseum lease, which expires in 2015. SMG, whose chief negotiator Al D’Amato is on the Computer Associates board, is seeking $30 million to buy out the lease. If a deal can’t be agreed upon, Nassau County would condemn the lease, removing SMG from the Coliseum and its surrounding site.
Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta told The Post last night that Wang will bring respectability back to the deteriorated Islanders.
“He’s an outstanding community leader who would invest resources in building up the franchise,” Gulotta said.
An announcement of the sale was expected to be made last week, but the club’s class B owners were unable to come to an agreement with the Milsteins and Gluckstern about how the $180 million will be divided amongst them.