"Our family is thrilled to have reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs, one of the most storied franchises in sports," Joe Ricketts, a billionaire who founded the Omaha-based online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., said in a statement. "The Cubs have the greatest fans in the world, and we count our family among them. We look forward to closing the transaction so that we can begin leading the Cubs to a World Series title."

The announcement is somewhat anticlimactic because in January Tribune Co. had selected the Ricketts family as the winning bidder of a protracted auction for the franchise. There were nine other prospective buyers.