Southampton gets bid approach
Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:46PM BST
By Elena Moya
LONDON (Reuters) - Southampton football club owner Southampton Leisure Holdings said on Friday it was considering a preliminary takeover approach, boosting its shares by 35 percent.
Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of software giant Microsoft, is believed to be interested in buying the club, the Evening Standard reported on Friday.
Allen could not be reached for comment.
"The board's consideration is at an early stage and there is no guarantee that any offer will be forthcoming," Southampton said in a statement.
Including the debt linked to the club's move to a new stadium, a bid could be worth as much as 50 million pounds, the Evening Standard reported.
The stock soared 35 percent to 65 pence at 3:30 p.m., taking the company's market value to 17.7 million pounds.
Allen would follow fellow U.S. billionaires George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who bought Liverpool football club earlier this year, and Malcolm Glazer, who bought league leaders Manchester United for 790 million pounds in 2005
Allen is the 19th-richest man in the world, with a fortune of $18 billion (9 billion pounds), Forbes magazine says. The billionaire owns the Seattle Seahawks American football team and the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team.
Interest in UK soccer clubs by U.S. tycoons has soared over the past two years because of rising ticket, marketing and television revenues.
The English league, the largest and most profitable in world football, has doubled its sales to 2 billion euros (1 billion pounds) in five years, according to accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche.
Not all English clubs have opened their arms to U.S. owners: Arsenal has publicly defended its independence.
Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said earlier this month he would be "horrified" to see the English football club in American hands, less than a month after a U.S. sports team owner acquired more than 10 percent of it.
Stan Kroenke, co-owner of the NFL's St. Louis Rams, agreed earlier in April to buy a 10 percent stake in Arsenal and a share of Arsenal Broadband from UK broadcaster ITV for 65 million pounds. He later bought more shares from other owners.
Hill-Wood told the Guardian newspaper that he and three of the club's majority shareholders had "no intention of selling to some stranger".
http://uk.reuters.com/article/sports...S&pageNumber=1
Although his spokesman has responded to speculation.....
"To the best of his knowledge, this spokesperson is not aware of any interest," said Michael Nank, Paul Allen's spokesman at Vulcan Ventures, an enterprise owned by Allen.
Not the strongist denial
And Kroenke said a similar things just days before buying 12% of Arsenal.
Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:46PM BST
By Elena Moya
LONDON (Reuters) - Southampton football club owner Southampton Leisure Holdings said on Friday it was considering a preliminary takeover approach, boosting its shares by 35 percent.
Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of software giant Microsoft, is believed to be interested in buying the club, the Evening Standard reported on Friday.
Allen could not be reached for comment.
"The board's consideration is at an early stage and there is no guarantee that any offer will be forthcoming," Southampton said in a statement.
Including the debt linked to the club's move to a new stadium, a bid could be worth as much as 50 million pounds, the Evening Standard reported.
The stock soared 35 percent to 65 pence at 3:30 p.m., taking the company's market value to 17.7 million pounds.
Allen would follow fellow U.S. billionaires George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who bought Liverpool football club earlier this year, and Malcolm Glazer, who bought league leaders Manchester United for 790 million pounds in 2005
Allen is the 19th-richest man in the world, with a fortune of $18 billion (9 billion pounds), Forbes magazine says. The billionaire owns the Seattle Seahawks American football team and the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team.
Interest in UK soccer clubs by U.S. tycoons has soared over the past two years because of rising ticket, marketing and television revenues.
The English league, the largest and most profitable in world football, has doubled its sales to 2 billion euros (1 billion pounds) in five years, according to accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche.
Not all English clubs have opened their arms to U.S. owners: Arsenal has publicly defended its independence.
Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said earlier this month he would be "horrified" to see the English football club in American hands, less than a month after a U.S. sports team owner acquired more than 10 percent of it.
Stan Kroenke, co-owner of the NFL's St. Louis Rams, agreed earlier in April to buy a 10 percent stake in Arsenal and a share of Arsenal Broadband from UK broadcaster ITV for 65 million pounds. He later bought more shares from other owners.
Hill-Wood told the Guardian newspaper that he and three of the club's majority shareholders had "no intention of selling to some stranger".
http://uk.reuters.com/article/sports...S&pageNumber=1
Although his spokesman has responded to speculation.....
"To the best of his knowledge, this spokesperson is not aware of any interest," said Michael Nank, Paul Allen's spokesman at Vulcan Ventures, an enterprise owned by Allen.
Not the strongist denial
And Kroenke said a similar things just days before buying 12% of Arsenal.
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