CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – NBA great Michael Jordan has agreed terms to buy controlling interest of the Charlotte Bobcats - a deal league commissioner David Stern welcomed on Saturday.

Stern said he expects Jordan to be approved by league owners as majority owner of the club by the end of next month thanks to an "expedited approval process."

"We have been anticipating an agreement for transfer of a majority interest in the Bobcats and are pleased it has occurred," Stern said in a statement.

The agreement was the equivalent of a boardroom buzzer-beater, with six-time NBA champion Jordan making the deal late Friday minutes before his exclusive negotiating window was to expire.

Owner Bob Johnson said in a statement that he had agreed to sell the Bobcats to Jordan, who been a part-owner of the club in his home state since 2006.

Jordan has been running the team's basketball operations.

The purchase price and details of Jordan's ownership group - called MJ Basketball Holdings LLC - weren't immediately available.

Jordan was in competition with former Houston Rockets executive George Postolos, who also put an ownership group together to buy the team.

But Postolos said Jordan had the exclusive right to buy the club until just before midnight Friday.

Johnson was the first black majority owner of a major American pro sports team.

Jordan becomes another black owner in another milestone for the Hall of Famer.

But Jordan, a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player, faces the task not only of making the Bobcats contenders but also making the club and its Charlotte arena profitable.

Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, paid $300 million for the expansion team that began play in 2004-05 and has since accumulated some $150 million in debt. The club is expected to lose tens of millions of dollars this season as they struggle to draw fans and find sponsorships.

Johnson shook up management several times before recruiting Jordan to be a minority investor, giving him the final say on all basketball decisions.

Jordan drafted the disappointing Adam Morrison third overall in 2006, but he lured Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown at the beginning of last season.

Since then Jordan and Brown have made seven trades and are in playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.