World’s second richest man, Elon Musk is reportedly eyeing a potential takeover of soccer club Manchester United and is said to be thinking of submitting a large bid of $5.4 billion. This could mean the biggest-ever purchase fee for a sports team.
The Glazer family, who own the Premier League club finally decided to sell the club in November after years of fan dissatisfaction during their 18-year reign. They set a deadline for potential formal bids to be submitted by Friday. The Raine Bank, which is based in America, is said to be handling the takeover talks on behalf of the Glazers.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was the first one to show interest in the club in January. A boyhood fan of the club, Sir Jim is also Britain’s richest man and the CEO of INEOS. Other candidates include a group of Qatari investors who seem to be the favorites as they have ambitious plans for the club. A consortium from Saudi is also said to have an interest in buying the club. Amid all this now Elon Musk has also expressed his interest in purchasing the club.
United’s owners have set a price of £6bn and £8bn to let go of the club. Though Elon Musk is said to be thinking of putting in a $5.4 billion bid for the prestigious club. It is also said the buyers must have reserve funds of up to £2bn to develop the club, including redeveloping Old Trafford. Many of the interested parties have already signed confidentiality agreements with the club to access sensitive information about the club. Some even want to join forces with Elon Musk and make him a figurehead of their bid.
Elon Musk is reportedly interested in making a $5.4 billion move to buy Manchester United, per @DailyMail.
He's believed to be "monitoring the situation." pic.twitter.com/TU2xGvUHXY
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 13, 2023
Elon Musk is the world’s second richest person with a net worth of £ 157 billion, previously being the richest person. He owns Tesla and SpaceX both of which are the world’s leading companies and are valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. He had recently purchased Twitter for $44 billion which dropped him to second on the richest person list. Buying Manchester United should be no problem for him.
Previously in August, Elon had tweeted as a joke that he will buy Manchester United though he deleted it later. But he did clarify that if he did buy a soccer club it would definitely be United as it was his ‘favorite team as a kid’.
“Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.” the entrepreneur had tweeted.
Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2022
However, till now no official bids were submitted by any parties. The situation will be better clarified on Friday which is the deadline for official bids.
