Club Sale | It’s done!

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Pexbo

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I’m calling it now, this is going to go to an insane bidding war and end up being £12bn-15bn+. I just hope the government steps in to this one and ensures that United’s infrastructure is properly invested in by whoever takes it over and that United’s match going support are respected.
 

Strootman's Finger

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Apple would be great as far as investors go. They'd invest but wouldn't treat the club as a plaything and no political motives.
Apple no poltical motives? Laurene Powell Jobs is under the radar one of the most powerful people in US poltics, thus world poltics.
 

Van Piorsing

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Space aliens should buy United.

Still better than Glazers endlessly exploring financial options for their own sake.
 

Spoony

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I’m calling it now, this is going to go to an insane bidding war and end up being £12bn-15bn+. I just hope the government steps in to this one and ensures that United’s infrastructure is properly invested in by whoever takes it over and that United’s match going support are respected.

Christ, talk about the Glazers winning the lottery a few times over. But yeah this is going to be reach insane levels.
 
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devilish

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If Newcastle somehow ended up on the street with another Mike Ashley owner after this, it would be a great 2 birds 1 stone win
They can be kept as our feeder club. Fletcher will be their manager while we would send Maguire and AWB there
 

Someone

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Apple no poltical motives? Laurene Powell Jobs is under the radar one of the most powerful people in US poltics, thus world poltics.
But they won't really buy United to increase their Corporate lobbying, it's a massive brand already. Apple simply have tons of cash to invest, assuming the news are true in the first place. United is a good long term investment for those with a lot of cash doing nothing, and that's for me the best prospect, someone who's capable of investing but still expects United to give a return on investment someday. No state backed ownership or sugar daddies.
 

largelyworried

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Well Apple invested in a 10 year, $2.5 billion deal with the MLS in their biggest venture into football thus far. This off the back of a $85m deal with MLB in the US. They are also currently in negotiation for some NFL games.

The suggested point of all this being that they see sport as an acquisition tool for Apple TV, which in turns is used as a way to get more people to buy apple products and invest in the Apple "ecosystem". And the suggestion is the start of a heavy shift into sport and sport broadcasting, particularly off the back of them declining to become involved in opportunities to invest more in the film industry.

So, speculating, let's accept that they have an over-arching plan to become more and more involved in and associated with sport and sport broadcasting. Presumably there is merit in acquiring one of the biggest sports brands on the planet to help drive that shift? Aside from the content they could mine from the club itself, Manchester United would be the flagship for Apple as an entity in the sports world.
Apple have a TV channel and they bought the rights of something popular to show on it. The strategy is very simple.

But they didn't buy an MLS club or an MLB team, they only bought the TV rights. What we've seen so far suggests they don't want to be involved in sports development, but rather sports broadcasting. Buying United doesn't get you the rights to show their games live, and probably never will. You'd hardly call the ability so show 90 minutes matches the day after the game was played an enticing prospect for subscribers. And even if they thought it was, just strike a deal with United to show their highlights. You don't need the club for that.

Worse still, it could be a future problem owning a club. What if the PL TV rights come on the market again and Apple decide they want them? Owning a club could be a conflict of interest that might stop them bidding for the TV rights in the future. If showing more European football is their aim - which seems entirely likely - then being a club owner might actually muddy the waters.
 

BarstoolProphet

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If Newcastle somehow ended up on the street with another Mike Ashley owner after this, it would be a great 2 birds 1 stone win
Newcastle are owned by the state fund though, he is talking about private sector (which will be connected to the government anyway.).
 

devilish

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Newcastle are owned by the state fund though, he is talking about private sector (which will be connected to the government anyway.).
How would that work though? Surely the state wouldn't want is to succeed and make them look silly
 

BarstoolProphet

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Hoe would that work though? Surely the state wouldn't want is to succeed and make them look silly
I'm not familiar with how it works in KSA, but would think they are after the market rather than putting everything in one basket (Newcastle). Officially Newcastle aren't owned by PIF (had to prove it to the FA), but everyone knows that's not true. Maybe they will try something similar with United and/or Liverpool - PIF owning the clubs via proxy.
 
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simonhch

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Apple would make a lot of sense. They have diminished their cash reserves from 107bn to 50bn in the last three years, mainly through investor payouts, and securities acquisitions, including properties etc. Yet they still have 50bn on hand in cash or cash equivalents, which is much more than they need. General thinking is that companies that keep less cash on hand, tend to perform better.

Personally, I would love the club to be bought by a tech giant. The potential competitive advantages off the field would be really interesting.
 

GDaly95

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Both United and Liverpool

Those quotes blatantly imply that it's the royal family themselves who own Newcastle, which I think I'm right in saying is precisely what they 'proved' wasn't the case when they were buying them.

What am I missing?
 

Rightnr

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Newcastle are owned by the state fund though, he is talking about private sector (which will be connected to the government anyway.).
As others have pointed out, it was blatantly obvious the whole the fund is not the Saudi government was completely bullshit.

I believe if the Saudis want to own us, they'd have to lose Newcastle, even if that is not made explicit publicly. I'd rather they stayed far away but Newcastle getting binned 1 year into their new era would be a decent silver lining.
 

BarstoolProphet

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Those quotes blatantly imply that it's the royal family themselves who own Newcastle, which I think I'm right in saying is precisely what they 'proved' wasn't the case when they were buying them.

What am I missing?
FA turning the blind eye to the blatantly obvious.
 

redNATION

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Those quotes blatantly imply that it's the royal family themselves who own Newcastle, which I think I'm right in saying is precisely what they 'proved' wasn't the case when they were buying them.

What am I missing?
Newcastle is owned by PIF, the sovereign wealth fund, so it’s basically known that the royal family control it but as it’s a state enterprise they can argue that it’s effectively owned by the state of KSA. In reality there’s no distinction as the royals run the country but their political influence in the UK means the deal was always going ahead.
 

Adebisi's Hat

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Apple, or any other producing company, just does not make sense and they surely dont need a sports club to remain successful. Plus, it would be an investment where they and especially the shareholders want to see a return. And that is not what the club needs
I think Apple would want Utd to boost their streaming service, i would think Amazon could also be a serious contender. Streaming has got really competitive now and they will need something to stand out from the crowd. Utd are still the biggest draw for viewing figures in the Prermier League , no matter how much money Newcastle and City have the Newcastle v Man City match will never have even close to the interest of the Man Utd v Liverpool fixture.

Don't want freckin Disney though, imagine renaming OT the Mickey Mouse Arena or the Avengers Bowl :mad:
 
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crimsonflames

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Those quotes blatantly imply that it's the royal family themselves who own Newcastle, which I think I'm right in saying is precisely what they 'proved' wasn't the case when they were buying them.

What am I missing?
You're missing that the PL rolled over and chose the path of least resistance regarding the Newcstle takeover. The divide between private and public sector doesn't really exist and is made as murky as possible to get around western regulation (see also Abu Dhabi and FFP).
 
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simonhch

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Apple has almost $200bn cash on hand. Of course buying United does look odd but it's not like they could not easily do that for marketing reasons. Microsoft are paying $70bn+ to acquire Activision Blizzard, $5bn looks pale in comparison... BTW can't Microsoft buy us and put us on Game Pass?
As of this year they “only” have 48bn on hand. But that’s a good thing. They’ve been buying a lot.

Itrafford …. with new versions every year!
Personally I can’t wait to visit the Old Trafford Pro Max. Bigger and better in every way.
 
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