Glazer closing in on ManU ownership

[Orbost]

Originally posted by Memnoch: quote: Originally posted by Lanesra: quote: Originally posted by Memnoch: On another note, how does Glazer expect to get 100% control of the club if 25% of it is in the hands of supporters who hate his guts? He's bought out the big investors like McManus etc and now has close to 75% I heard. But how can he compel the remaining 25% to sell?

when he gets 75% he can take the shares off of the stock exchange. he can decide not to pay any dividends so the shares will just be scrap paper. when he gets 90% he can force the other 10% to sell to him at 300p per share. if they don't sell they lose all value.

[/QUOTE]So basically if he controls 75% he basically owns the club, is that right? If he doesn't pay dividends, turning the remaining 25% of shares into scrap, wouldn't that lead to a revaluation of the club? Sounds kind of strange. [/QUOTE]When he owns 75% of the shares, he has total control of the club. Any issues that need a shareholder vote, only need 75% of the vote to be approved. Therefore the shareholders of the remaining 25% have no influence over how the club is run. Glazer could, if he chose, delist the company (ie turn it back into a private company), and this would mean that the minority shareholders do not have a market on which to sell their shares. If he owns 90% of the shares, he can force the remaining shareholders to sell their shares to him.

The fans may be upset, but they have to accept the fact that as soon as the club listed (turned into a plc), it was effectively for sale. Rather than complaining that a yank has now come in and bought lots of shares, they should have organised themselves years ago. If the fans had between them bought 25.1% of the shares, they would hold a blocking shareholding that would have severely restricted the ability of Glazer to control the club, and probably dissuaded anyone else from trying to buy the club.

[johnny]

One would almost forget that it's about football, which is supposed to entertain people instead of pissing them off.

[Kakero]

Football sometimes pissed people off rather than being an entertainment too you know? Especially after a bad result.

[Charlie]

Glazer has confirmed he's taking the club off of the stock market in 14 days. Looks like they've gone from debt free to debt riddled in one fell swoop. I'm not keen on Manchester United, but I must admit this whole affair kinda sucks.

UP THE PALACE!

[Callum]

And on top of that we got robbed of the cup!

[johnny]

Originally posted by Charlie: Glazer has confirmed he's taking the club off of the stock market in 14 days. Looks like they've gone from debt free to debt riddled in one fell swoop. I'm not keen on Manchester United, but I must admit this whole affair kinda sucks. UP THE PALACE!

At least you get to play against West Ham again next year.

[Charlie]

Grrrr [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Charlie]

Glazer was questioned by British reporters last night. He stood there, jaw hanging with the most ridiculous smile on his face, I'd say he even appeared retarded, he looked ready to dribble.

He didn't even say so much as "no comment". It was a perfect opportunity for him to alleviate some of the fears of the tens of thousands of British and worldwide fans. Evidently he didn't think they were worth the effort.

[Brayf]

As a United fan, I'm pretty annoyed about it all, but I don't think it's as bad as people are making out. I'm sure Glazer's an astute businessman and wouldn't be spending £800m on something that he didn't think he could turn into a success. Talk of having to sell all the best players is a bit absurd, I think.

That said, it's sad to see my team get taken over by somebody like this. Although the old board didn't really care too much for the team either, at least they sat back and gave it some leeway. Glazer's going to be totally ruthless as far as passion and fans' rights go.