May 3, 2006, 23:28 GMT
Washington - An investment group that included former US secretary of state Colin Powell lost a bid Wednesday to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.
Major League Baseball instead sold the team, for 450 million dollars, to a partnership led by capital-area developer Theodore Lerner.
Months after his January 2005 departure from the Bush administration, Powell joined investors led by Washington businessmen Fred Malek and Jeffrey Zients.
The Nationals relocated from Montreal, where they were known as the Expos, before the start of the 2005 season. Major League Baseball owned the struggling team during the transition.
Powell's participation in the Malek-Zients group reflected an effort by the bidders to include minority investors, a criterion baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said would play an important role in his decision.
The Nationals have had a rough start to the 2006 season, winning only nine of their first 27 games.
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