← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Otto Skorzeny
Thread ID: 18216 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-05-12
2005-05-12 15:38 | User Profile
| [url="http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpYnF0a2UxBF9TAzk1ODYzNTkwBHNlYwN0bQ--?slug=ap-manunited-glazer&prov=ap&type=lgns"]http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpYnF0a2UxBF9TAzk1ODYzNTkwBHNlYwN0bQ--?slug=ap-manunited-glazer&prov=ap&type=lgns[/url] Glazer launches takeover bid of Manchester United |
| By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer [color=#999999]May 12, 2005[/color] LONDON (AP) -- [url="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/tam/"][color=#0000ff]Tampa Bay Buccaneers[/color][/url] owner Malcolm Glazer began a $1.47 billion takeover bid of Manchester United on Thursday, raising his stake to nearly 57 percent of the world's richest soccer team. He bought the 28.7 percent share held by Irish racehorse owners J.P. McManus and John Magnier. He previously owned 28.1 percent of the club. Glazer needs more than 75 percent of the shares to take complete control, and he will now make an offer for the remaining shares. His company, Red Football, said he would pay $5.58 a share to acquire the Irishmen's stake. Thursday's move came two weeks after the Manchester United board said it would not recommend Glazer's takeover proposals to investors because his business plan appeared ``aggressive.'' Glazer had been given a May 17 deadline to submit a plan or withdraw his attempts to buy the team. His first two proposals were rejected by the board, which said the package relied too heavily on borrowed money. ``The board awaits the formal terms of the Red Offer and a further announcement will be made once the board has reviewed that announcement,'' the club said. Financial analysts said Glazer seemed certain to succeed in buying the team. ``The stake held by the Irishmen was always going to be the key to the bid,'' said Roy Kaitcer of Manchester stockbrokers Brewin Dolphin Securities. ``He obviously has a great platform to start his bid. ``Once other shareholders see what has happened, they will say they better take that as well. It looks like Mr. Glazer is on his way to owning Manchester United.'' There is strong opposition from the fan group Shareholders United, which fears Glazer will raise ticket prices and sell 67,000-seat Old Trafford stadium. ``I'm giving up my season ticket,'' Shareholders United president Nick Towle said. ``I'm not putting a penny of my money into this guy's pocket.'' ``I'm very sad,'' he added. ``It's a really sad day for Manchester United, for the supporters, for the whole club and I think it's a sad day for football in general.'' Shareholders United represents 17 percent of the club's stockholders, a number estimated at 20,000. Towle said at least half -- and maybe all -- would give up their tickets and stop attending games. He said Shareholders United still hoped to block Glazer from reaching the 75 percent level. ``If we can get to that 25 percent of the remaining shareholders, that would be great,'' Towle said. ``But it's looking like an uphill battle for us.'' Manchester United dominated English soccer for more than a decade, winning eight titles in 11 seasons and four FA Cups in 10. But the Red Devils are now only third in the Premier League for the third time in four years. With a game left, Manchester United is 20 points behind champion Chelsea and six behind runner-up Arsenal. Glazer's move came just before Man United's May 21 FA Cup final against Arsenal, its only chance for a trophy this season. AP Sports Writers Stephen Wilson and Krystyna Rudzki in London contributed this report. Glazer is a real vile character, read his profile in the Guardian: [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1410313,00.html"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1410313,00.html[/url] |
2005-05-12 15:40 | User Profile
[url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1410313,00.html"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1410313,00.html[/url]
[font=Arial][size=5]The Guardian profile: Malcolm Glazer[/size][/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=3]His 60-year career has spanned fast food and nursing homes and involved some bizarre court cases. Now America's 270th richest person is determined to buy Manchester United - regardless of what the fans think[/size][/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][size=2]Nils Pratley Friday February 11, 2005 [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/"][color=#003366]The Guardian[/color][/url]
[/size][/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][size=2]Five years ago, Malcolm Glazer decided to write a book about his success. Like any self-made multimillionaire lacking time or literary talent, he searched for a ghost writer. Allen St John, now a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, was among those called to the Hilton on Sixth Avenue in New York to meet the man who, at the age of 76, is now trying to buy Manchester United.
Glazer, recalls St John, had chosen a cramped twin-bed room to conduct these potentially important meetings. The room appeared to have been occupied the previous night by Glazer and his son Bryan, who was also in attendance. If that suggested a frugal, even penny-pinching, nature, Glazer was eager to confirm the impression.
At one point he interrupted a monologue about his early years to point at Bryan's trousers. "You see those pants?" he asked. "Those are Hugo Boss pants. They cost $200.
"My pants?" he continued. "They came from JC Penney, $19.95 on sale. And you know something? I like my pants more than he likes his pants. You know why? Because I remember the day when I didn't have $20 to spend on pants."
The book never materialised and, in truth, the idea was wholly out of character. Glazer, the son of a poor Lithuanian immigrant, has generally adopted a "never explain" approach to the many controversies he has provoked during his climb to become America's 278th richest person, according to Forbes magazine's 2004 league table. He is worth $1bn (ã530m). He has not given a proper press interview for years, certainly not since he paid $192m for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football team in January 1995. Apart from the occasional trot down the touchline before home games, he has not tried to bask in the glory of the team's triumph two years ago in the Super Bowl. Tampa fans call him the Leprechaun in reference to his small, round frame and gingerish beard.
"He is different from other sports franchise owners in that he is very much a businessman and he is proud of that," says St John. "At a certain point, many of them are almost embarrassed to talk about how much money they have made, whereas Glazer is completely unapologetic about that. For him, it is not just about sporting victory but also about business victory. He is just as happy to make money on something as win a championship."
That analysis goes to the heart of fans' fears about Glazer's motives. The would-be bidder has spent about ã180m acquiring a 28.1% stake in the club without setting foot inside Old Trafford. He did not watch the team play during its American tour last summer. Nor has he made any attempt to woo the fans with a statement about how he would run the club. Nothing has been done to counter the idea that he would increase ticket prices, as he did at Tampa.
The only personal image that Glazer tries to promote is that of a man who has worked hard for his fortune and cares about his family. The Glazer Family Foundation's website gives only the briefest account of what it calls a "true American success story", describing how Glazer worked in the family watch-parts business in Rochester, New York, from the age of eight. When his father died in 1943, Glazer, the eldest son, assumed responsibility for the business at 15.
Thereafter, the tale has less charm. Glazer's 60-year business career, incorporating property, fish, fast food restaurants, local television stations and nursing homes, has been punctuated with minor court cases. Some are bizarre, even by the standards of America's litigation-happy culture. Soon after the Tampa Bay takeover, residents on a trailer park accused Glazer's holding company of illegally charging an extra $5 a month for keeping a pet and $3 for each resident beyond the first two. Glazer eventually dropped the fees, but not before incurring acres of bad publicity and was dubbed the "slumlord".
The strangest of the legal cases is the one involving his mother's estate, originally worth $1m. Glazer's dispute with four of his older sisters dragged on for more than a decade in the civil courts. "I don't think they were very happy that mother got a new Cadillac every year and they had to use an old car," he told the Baltimore Sun in 1992.
Recurring themes in Glazer's career - ones that echo in the assault on Manchester United - are his willingness to employ heavy borrowings and efforts to maximise the bargaining power of relatively small investments. Having concentrated on property in his early years, initially buying rented homes in Rochester, he reinvented himself as a corporate raider in the go-go stock markets of the 1980s. In 1988, he bought 10% of Formica Corporation, the work surface company, and threatened to bid for it before selling the stake to a higher bidder. The following year, he employed similar tactics at Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle manufacturer; he built a 6.9% stake, generated some takeover fever and then sold at a profit.
In the 1990s, he made a killing in junk bonds, a feat that will have required high nerve and astute analysis. Junk bonds were regarded as the toxic waste of the financial system after a series of scandals and defaults. Glazer judged that things could not get much worse, and is reckoned to have roughly doubled his $80m investment as economic recovery ensured that not all companies defaulted on their junk bonds.
Glazer's interest in United probably springs from the same instinct: he thinks it's a bargain, even at ã800m. You can see his logic: it is probably the world's most famous sporting club, its stadium is always sold out and its brand cannot be copied. That makes it an enticing prospect for Glazer-style financing - mortgage a rock-solid asset up to the hilt in order to crank up the potential returns. Under the takeover proposal for United, Glazer's direct upfront investment would be only a third of the takeover price.
According to his advisers, Glazer also thinks the current United management is guilty of under-exploiting the brand. If you think ã45 for a polyester replica shirt is already quite enough, you have not being paying attention to the possibilities. Arsenal will collect ã100m for allowing their new stadium to be named after an airline for 15 years. How much could be generated by attaching a sponsor's name to Old Trafford?
Therein lies the reason for the intensity of the hostility of United fans, who this week hanged an effigy of Glazer from the gates of Old Trafford and chanted "Malcolm Glazer's gonna die". They believe Glazer is interested only in milking the club's impressive cash flows. It is not as if United needs a new owner: the club is free of debt and its 12 years as a publicly quoted company have been its most successful in terms of winning silverware.
Glazer's record as a successful owner of a sports club rests almost entirely on that Super Bowl victory in 2003. To be fair, this achievement should not be underestimated. Tampa Bay in its pre-Glazer years was a perennial loser. Unfortunately for those trying to promote Glazer as a genius of sports management, the Buccaneers have since reverted to their losing ways. The value of the franchise, though, has roughly trebled under Glazer's ownership, partly because he was able to secure taxpayers' money for a new stadium.
Glazer bases himself in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has two huge mansions on the oceanfront. He attends the Palm Beach synagogue and contributed to its construction. He and his wife, Linda, have six children - Avram, Kevin, Bryan, Joel, Ed and Darcie - and it is they who are reputed to have encouraged the move into sport. Joel and Avram are fronting the attempt to buy United.
The bad news for hostile United fans is that Glazer's defining characteristic is his bloody-mindedness. He tried to buy four other American sports franchises before getting the Buccaneers. When he was rebuffed by the United board last year, he responded by buying more shares in a stock market raid. Then he voted off three directors, which cost him his City advisers. So he recruited others and came back with a new proposal. He seems to be a man who does not care what people think of him.
Life in short
**Background ** Born in 1928 in Rochester, New York. One of seven children of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who lost relatives in the Holocaust.
**Family ** Married to Linda, with whom he has five sons and a daughter. Lives in Palm Beach, Florida. All of his children are involved in the family businesses.
Career In 1943, inherited his father Abraham's watch business. Within five years, started investing in property such as trailer parks, nursing homes, banks and shopping malls. When his mother, Hannah, died in 1980, he launched a legal bid to prevent his brother and five sisters getting a share of the $1m estate. In 1995, bought Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2003, turned attention to Manchester United after failing to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise. **Quote ** On his father's death: "Probably the most tragic thing in my life. But it was good in one way. It made me a man."[/size][/font]
2005-05-20 14:21 | User Profile
What a sleaze! Even if you don't like sports, this guy needs to be stopped:
[url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401"]http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401[/url]
| **[color=#fcad02]THIS IS THE T*** THAT WANTS TO BUY OUR CLUB[/color]** | |
| Story by Editor | 24 October 2004 |
| **[color=#000000]Make no mistake. You must do whatever you can to stop him (all legal obviously) [/color]** |
| [color=#000000][size=2]From the Supersoaraway (Yes we know, but this is something we were aware of too) The tycoon hell-bent on buying [url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401#"]Manchester United[/url] has made millions out of America's desperately poor trailer park families. And a Sun investigation on the eve of the clash of the giants between [url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401#"]Man U[/url] and [url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401#"]Arsenal[/url] has revealed members of his own family despise him for his money-grabbing ways. Florida-based property multi-millionaire Malcolm Glazer has been branded a hard-hearted miser by his family and hard-up tenants who claim they were forced to pay illegal fees on his mobile home parks. The recluse is determined to own United, recently increasing his stake to ã210m. He now owns 28.11 per cent of the club and is poised for a takeover bid. But his sister and brother-in-law urged United fans: "Don't let him near your club." No one heââ¬â¢s ever worked with has a good word to say about him. He can appear charming but itââ¬â¢s all a front - HIS SISTER A US judge reviewing his business practices has also branded him "a snake in sheep's clothing." New York-born Glazer, 76, is dubbed "The Leprechaun" by enemies because of his short stature, bushy ginger beard and trousers pulled up too high on his body. But he controls vast real estate and business holdings valued at an estimated ã636million. He was the fifth of seven children born to Russian Jew Abraham Glazer, who came to America aged 19 seeking his fortune. When Abraham died in 1943, leaving just ã300, Malcolm took over his watch repair business and assumed the role of head of the family. Trailer of misery ... an old Glazer trailer park in New York Picture: SPLASH And when Malcolm's mother Hannah passed away in 1980 with an estate worth ã415,000, super-rich Glazer launched a legal bid to prevent his brother and five sisters getting a share of the business - despite having made his fortune. The fight has dragged on for an amazing 24 years. One sister, who The Sun has agreed not to name, said: "When his mother died he wanted to make sure he got every single cent of the inheritance as he believed he was the one who made a success of the business. "The family were all so close but he just made mincemeat of them all. "He made sure they ended up with virtually nothing. He would rather have spent the money on court fees than give them a cent. It was incredibly mean, but also incredibly sad. That man should not be in charge of Manchester United. He is only interested in one thing - the dollar - HIS EX-TENANT "People in Britain should be very wary of him. I don't think he is fit to own such a famous and historic club as Manchester United. If he gets his hands on it the only one who will benefit is Malcolm. "No one he has ever worked with has a good word to say about him. He can appear very charming but it's all a front." Within five years of taking on his father's business Glazer had the capital to start buying property. By the 1960s, he had diversified into banking and his tenant groups started complaining about his rents and upkeep. In the 1970s he bought up nursing homes and TV stations. He made much of his money from thousands of tenants who lived on his ten vast mobile home parks. But after his mother's death, he was furious that her will appointed his oldest sister Rosalind Klein, now 85, as executor and split her legacy between her family. Sign of trouble ... greeting for visitors at one of the parks Picture: SPLASH At one point in the court case, with the judge out of the room, the stenographer recorded Glazer telling his lawyer: "We have to keep going until there is no money in this estate." The case has outlived two of his sisters. Last night his brother-in-law Morris Krovetz said: "Malcolm Glazer is not a man - he's an animal. "He's done so much damage to the family that it pains me to even mention his name. As far as I'm concerned he no longer exists." Mr Krovetz, who was married to Glazer's sister Evelyn, blames his brother-in-law for destroying his wife's life. Malcolm Glazer is not a man - heââ¬â¢s an animal. Heââ¬â¢s done so much damage to the family that it pains me to even mention his name - HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW Evelyn died seven years ago, having not spoken to her brother for 15 years. Glazer, disowned by his own family, has courted controversy at every stage of his life. Despite the high profile of his American [url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401#"]football club[/url], the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the father of six remains secretive and reclusive. At his East Avenue and Forest Lawn mobile home parks in Rochester, New York, residents complained constantly about the poor conditions he kept them in. The tenants, many old and poor, formed a pressure group to fight him. Lawyer Paul Marasco, who represented them in a successful lawsuit against Glazer, said: "He was charging tenants extra for having pets and even having babies. "It was all against the law but he still fought it every inch of the way. We thought what he was doing was wrong so took him on and the courts vindicated our fight. I'm glad we won and a lot of people got some money back." Glazer's goal ... the tycoon has set his sights on [url="http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=184401#"]Man Utd[/url] Former shopkeeper Chester Wilday, 83, who lives in the Forest Lawn mobile home park in Penfield, Rochester, also believes Glazer is bad news for Man Utd. He said: "That man should not be allowed in charge of the club. He is only interested in one thing - the dollar sign." Today parts of the trailer parks resemble waste dumps - with rusting toys and discarded rubbish littering the cramped space between lots. Many mobile homes are boarded up and have become a magnet for drug users, residents say. Glazer's company, First Allied, sold seven Rochester mobile home parks in April this year. Glazer is a snake in sheepââ¬â¢s clothing - JUDGE TERENCE EVANS A prime example of his business tactics was his corporate raid on Harley-Davidson in 1991. When the motorcycle maker was struggling, Glazer used his stockholding to air his complaints about management and threaten a hostile takeover. It drove up the share price - and just as analysts were predicting Glazer to make a fully-fledged takeover, he quietly sold his entire shareholding and walked away with the profits. At a court hearing into the affair, Judge Terence Evans likened Glazer to "a snake in sheep's clothing". The tycoon has now put his two homes in Palm Beach, Florida, on the market for a total of ã27million, a move which would help raise cash for his United bid. Now Manchester United fans have a battle to keep the snake from slipping under the boardroom door. [/size][/color] |