We already passed along one major update on the Kings sale today, as Sacramento City Council approved an arena proposal put forth by a Sacramento investment group that includes Ron Burkle, Mark Mastrov, Vivek Ranadive, and Paul Jacobs. That means the group's bid to keep the Kings from moving to Seattle can move forward as planned, but that's not today's only piece of news.
According to Nick Monacelli of News10 in Sacramento, Bob Cook's bankruptcy lawyers have reached an agreement with Chris Hansen's Seattle group to sell Cook's 7% stake in the Kings for about $15.1MM (Twitter links). Cook's minority stake in the Kings was expected to be auctioned off in April, but a sale, if completed, would circumvent the auction process, says Monacelli (Twitter link).
Other limited partners who currently have a stake in the Kings will have the right of first refusal, giving them 15 days to match the offer. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson tells Monacelli that the Sacramento group bidding for the Kings will come up with an offer of its own for Cook's 7% share within a few days (Twitter link). Although the agreement with Hansen prevents the solicitation of further offers, additional bids can still be reviewed, says Monacelli (via Twitter).
The sale of Cook's 7% share to Hansen requires the approval of a judge and the NBA, so my understanding is that it will eventually go through the same process that the majority sale of the team will — this just puts a little more pressure on the Sacramento group to commit some more money in the short-term.