The fans of Manchester United are all in an uproar of today's news that Malcolm Glazer (owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has taken control of the club with an aggressive takeover bid:
US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer has won control of Manchester United in a £790m ($1.47bn) takeover bid.The American has secured the 28.7% stake owned by Irish racing tycoons JP MacManus and John Magnier, and now has 62% of the Premiership club.
Red Football Ltd, acting on behalf of Mr Glazer, said the Irishmen had sold their stakes for 300p a share.
Club fans have vehemently opposed Mr Glazer's ambition all along and fear that ticket prices will soar.
The bid comes five days ahead of the 17 May deadline when Mr Glazer had to make known whether he planned to bid.
The thing of it is, Glazer can only do this because Manchester United is a publicly traded company, something which has brought them great revenue since they first went public. It seems more than a bit ridiculous to happily reap the benefits without recognizing the potential consequences. And now that those consequences have come to fruition, they want to cry and scream and rip up their season tickets.
Of course, the fact that I'm an Arsenal fan has nothing to do with my opinion on this matter.
Gabriel | 12 May 2005 | Permalink
