Celtics owner makes offer to purchase the WNBA's Connecticut Sun
According to reports, Pagliuca and his group made an offer to purchase the Connecticut Sun for $325 million.
"The sale price would be the highest ever for a professional women's sports franchise," said Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
Pagliuca's goal in the purchase is said to transition the Sun franchise from Uncasville, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts. This will be the second time the Sun franchise will be relocating. They moved from Orlando, Florida, in 2003.
The Sun has yet to win a WNBA championship, but has reached the WNBA Finals four times in its existence, with its last being in 2022.
Currently, the Sun is in a rebuilding process with new head coach Rachid Meziane. The team is currently in last place in the WNBA with a 5-21 record.
The franchise's current venue, Mohegan Sun Arena, is one of the WNBA's smallest arenas, and the franchise doesn't have a dedicated practice facility for the team.
The sale is still in its early stages and would need approval from the WNBA and league governors. A point of conflict has emerged, as the league still has plans to save Boston as a potential expansion city for a team in 2033.
"The Sun sent a letter to season ticket-holders, ensuring the club will play at Mohegan Sun Arena in the 2026 season. The Boston group is targeting a 2027 move and would potentially play early season games in Providence to avoid any conflict with Bruins and Celtics playoff games," Gary Washburn wrote in his article detailing the bid. "The WNBA has yet to comment on the potential sale."
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Nonetheless, the carrier has found new ways to grow its bottom line and improve margins, and those trends were on display in its second-quarter earnings report. XPO clears the Wall Street bar In a difficult macro environment, XPO reported flat revenue at $2.08 billion, which topped estimates at $2.05 billion. Revenue in the core North American LTL business (carriers that specialize in transporting smaller shipments that don't require a full truckload) was down 2.5% to $1.24 billion, while its European Transportation segment rose 4.1% to $841 million. Tonnage was down 6.7% per day, but the company made up for the decline in volume with an increase in yield (or price) of 6.1%, excluding fuel. Price increases were driven in part by service improvements like reducing damage claims and improved on-time performance that have allowed the company to raise prices. And it has found growth in the local market, serving small to medium-size businesses in need of local transportation. XPO was the only one of the three top LTL carriers to improve its adjusted operating ratio, which is the inverse of operating margin, in North America, which fell 30 basis points to 82.9% (a lower ratio is an indication of higher efficiency). Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were essentially flat, falling from $343 million to $340 million, while adjusted earnings per share (EPS) fell from $1.12 to $1.05 as it lapped a tax benefit from the year before. That result still beat the consensus at $0.99. Investors seemed to shrug off the news as the stock was down slightly following the results and the earnings call, but XPO could please investors in the back half of the year. Let's take a look at a few reasons why. 1. Share buybacks are set to resume Historically, share repurchases have been a key tool for XPO to generate shareholder value, and it has deployed them effectively. The company began repurchasing its stock again in the second quarter, buying back a modest $10 million, and chief strategy officer Ali Faghri said in an interview with The Motley Fool that he expected those repurchases to pick up in the second half of the year, the time of year when it brings in the vast majority of its free cash flow due to the seasonality of its capital expenditures (capex). After years of ramping up capex to invest in new tractors, trailers, and terminals, the company expects capex as a percentage of revenue to start to decline, freeing up cash to invest in share repurchases and paying down debt. Both of those moves should help lift EPS as debt reduction will lower its interest expense, which ate up more than a quarter of operating income in the second quarter, and lowering shares outstanding will boost per-share earnings even if net income remains flat. 2. Nearshoring could drive growth in the industrial economy Growth in the LTL sector and for XPO in particular is closely tied to manufacturing activity in the country, and according to the ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), manufacturing activity has been declining for most of the last three years. It's unclear if trade negotiations have had an impact so far on XPO's business, but Faghri was optimistic that the new round of tariffs could help encourage nearshoring, or the return of manufacturing to the U.S., which would be a boon to XPO since two-thirds of its business comes from industrial customers. More U.S manufacturing would drive demand for LTL transportation, and could fuel a boom in the industry after years of stagnation. 3. 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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $624,823!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,820!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,019% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Jeremy Bowman has positions in GXO Logistics, RXO, and XPO. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Old Dominion Freight Line. The Motley Fool recommends GXO Logistics, RXO, and XPO and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $195 calls on Old Dominion Freight Line and short January 2026 $200 calls on Old Dominion Freight Line. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Reasons XPO Stock Could Take Off in the Second Half of the Year was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
