USA Today's J. Michael Falgoust and Jake Kaplan report a group offered $500 million to buy the Atlanta Thrashers, Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena on May 20. That was the day after the Globe and Mail reported the deal to send the Thrashers to Winnipeg was essentially done. It might be the offer USA Today's Kevin Allen was talking about here.
Can't find much on either part of the group that reportedly made the offer, which was composed of Oriana Capital Partners and Global Wellington Financial Corp. Especially since the report was sourced from the group itself, you shouldn't necessarily assume foul play here -- there's not much information out there on the former, and the latter's name is so similar to another I can't really tell which is which.
I also don't know how much Philips Arena's lease is worth, but I'd imagine that's a little too low to take over all three entities. Based on everything we'd heard the number for both teams was something like $350 million ... isn't an arena that can turn a profit off concerts and basketball games alone worth more than $150 million?
UPDATE: So, yep ...
Sorry #thrashers fans.. USA Today article about $500-million dollar bid for ASG is "Totally false" according to source.less than a minute ago via web 
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Zach Klein
ZachKleinWSB
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