TBS must pay for canceling accord

A Time Warner Inc. unit must pay $281 million in damages to a Texas businessman for reneging on an oral agreement to sell him two professional sports teams, a Georgia jury ruled.

Jurors in Atlanta found that Turner Broadcasting System improperly canceled a 2003 accord to sell the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers to David McDavid, a former Dallas car dealer.

The teams wound up in the hands of an Atlanta-based group of investors that included the son and the son-in-law of Ted Turner, TBS’ billionaire founder.