Man U Valued at $1.5 Billion -- American takes control

[Agathon]

Here's hoping he does an "Enron". I'd love to see the scum's faces if that happened.

Biggest gloatfest in history.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And United fans have nothing to say in response really. They are either livid or depressed.

I know you are heartless, Aggie, but its hard not to feel sorry for 'em right now.

[Agathon]

Imran, you obviously hate football if you feel sorry for the scum.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Agathon, you obvious hate football if you'd wish something as horrid as Malcolm Glazer on ANYONE .

[Shi Huangdi]

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[alva]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Wait, let me get this straight. The guy uses his dominant position in ManU to force the company to borrow for his needs? And once he reaches sufficient control, he'll force ManU to pay back the debt that he started for his personal needs?

Funny how a rich man's world works hey.

[C0ckney]

this can only be bad news for united, the backlash from this is going to be incredible.

[Drake Tungsten]

First the Taliban. Then Saddam. Now Man U. Wow, America sure is sticking it to evil around the world these days...

[Demerzel]

if the numbers are right then Man U will soon have £300/400m of debt, annual interest on that for £25m and a yearly profit* of £25m. Hmm not that good! What a pity for all those scumchester fans!

*Last year's profit I believe was heavily influenced by buying Rooney ( £30m? ) and others, so any reduced transfer budget would be one quick way to improve that profit for Glazer...

[MikeH]

Originally posted by JohnT

Kind of. Glazer is borrowing from banks to try to purchase the club (so not borrowing from the club.. yet, read on). Once he gets to 75% owner, he can take it off the stock market and run it as a non-market company, which means he can transfer his debt to the company. So he does ends up borrowing from the club, with the goal of getting enough shares that he can take the club off the stock market and use it as his fiefdom.

Sounds like a leveraged buyout, British style. Nothing new there.

Exactly.

The fans are for some reason surprised/shocked, that's exactly what can happen with a PLC, it's on the market so people can buy them if they want.

Ironically it's ManU's strong financial/debt free position that makes this possible.

[Winston]

Should be interesting to see whether he'll introduce taped organ music during play breaks.

[reismark]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Agathon, you obvious hate football if you'd wish something as horrid as Malcolm Glazer on ANYONE .

OK, Imran... I was gonna keep silent on this one, but now you've just gone over the edge with your blatantly obvious anti-Tampa Bay bias.

Seriously, though... while I can't speak ill of Glazer for getting the Buccaneers out of the dark ages, I sincerely hope that he's not so consumed by this as to forget what brought him to the national stage...

[Maquiladora]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Glazer

[Kuciwalker]

Finally, on 12 May 2005, he reached an agreement with shareholders J. P. McManus and John Magnier to purchase their 28.7% stake in the team, giving him a controlling stake with just under 57% of the team's shares. Just hours later, Glazer had bought a further 8% stake taking his total ownership to 70%.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's the new math.