The approval is the final step of a months-long battle for
the team. It followed a marathon auction that ended early last Thursday morning
when Rangers Baseball Express, a group led by Ryan and Pittsburgh lawyer Chuck
Greenberg, said they would buy the Rangers in a $593 million transaction.
Ryan, who is also the Rangers' president, and Greenberg won
a bidding war with a group led by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks
basketball team.
Among the other members of the winning group are Ray Davis,
a Dallas billionaire and former co-CEO of Energy Transfer Partners LP, and Bob
Simpson, who was chairman of XTO Energy Inc, which Exxon Mobil Corp bought this
year.
"I am confident that Chuck, Nolan and the entire
ownership group will serve as dedicated stewards of the club by building a
long-term, stable franchise," baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in a
statement.
A sale became necessary came after lenders to former owner
Thomas Hicks, the private equity executive, declared a default in April 2009 on
$525 million of loans.
The Rangers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 24, the
same day the Ryan group agreed to pay $575 million for the team. Many creditors
objected, leading to the auction.
US Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan on Aug. 5 approved the
final sale, which included $385 million of cash and the assumption of $208
million of liabilities.
The Rangers are the second team to be sold through the bankruptcy
process in the last year.
Newspaper publisher Tribune Co., which remains in
bankruptcy, last October sold the Chicago Cubs for $845 million to the family
of Tom Ricketts, whose father founded the brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp
.