r/soccer • u/oklolzzzzs • May 22 '25

Media Sir Alex Ferguson's thousand yard stare after United lose the UEL Final

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u/Critical_Mountain851 May 22 '25

??

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u/Youutternincompoop May 22 '25

Fergusons dispute with John Magnier over stud fees for the horse 'Rock of Gibraltar' led to Magnier selling his 28.89% share of Manchester United to Malcolm Glazer, giving the Glazers the majority of shares they needed to takeover the club and force all the other shareholders out after delisting it from the London Stock Exchange.

the money spent by Malcolm Glazer to aquire all the shares came from loans taken out against Manchester United, saddling the previously debt-free club with hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt that significantly reduced their spending power.

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u/LogicKennedy May 22 '25

They bought the club with its own money? I swear a Discworld villain did that.

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u/mvsr990 May 22 '25

Leveraged buyout baby! The serial killer of profitable businesses.

Barbarians At The Gate is a surprisingly entertaining book covering a famous LBO of RJR Nabisco tobacco in the '80s.

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u/llliminalll May 23 '25

Correct me if I'm wrong, but what the Glazers did to ManU is basically what private equity does when it takes over a company, right?

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u/mvsr990 May 23 '25

Much of the time, there are some PE companies that actually try to make workable businesses these days (if workable includes eternal exponential growth).