Tesla founder Elon Musk says he will be buying English football club Manchester united in a tweet on Tuesday. The Billionaire who is known for his mission to put life on Mars tweeted:
“Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome.” It is not clear who he is saying “ur welcome” to, but
Manchester united lost 2-1 loss to Brighton in their opening match. The team also lost 4-0 away to Brentford, conceding all four in the first half of the game.
The team is controlled by the American Glazer family. Neither the family nor Musk immediately responded to a request for comment. British newspaper The Daily Mirror reported last year that the Glazers were prepared to sell the club but only if they were offered in excess of 4 billion pounds.($4.84 billion)
Manchester United is one of the world’s best supported football clubs. They have been champions of England a record 20 times and have won the European Cup, the most prestigious club competition in the global game, three times.
Musk, after making an audacious offer to buy twitter for a whopping $54 billion, abandon the deal just weeks after he signed the agreement, claiming that Twitter released misleading stats about the prevalence of spam bots on its platform.
Twitter stocks fell by 7.4% on Friday amidst the news of the termination of the merger agreement.
The Billionaire entrepreneur agreed to the deal to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion in April, using one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history. The powerful social networking platform that has become a town square for public discourse and a flashpoint in the debate over online free speech was supposed to go private after the buyout transaction was complete.
Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) subsequently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion.
The price is 38% more than the stock’s close on April 1, the last business day before Musk disclosed a significant stake in the company, sparking a share rally. Twitter shares were halted for the news.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, said at the time, “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, said, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
The deal was unanimously approved by the company’s board but now seems less likely to be complete. Musk secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing and will provide about $21 billion in equity to fund the deal, according to the statement.
Previously Disney called off a deal to buy the platform saying it was “too problematic”, CEO Bob Iger revealed in a New York Times interview.
After calling it a “compelling” way to reach consumers, the deal never went through and Disney instead purchased a majority stake in sports streaming site BAMTech.
Musk is currently trying to exit a $44 billion agreement to buy the social media company, which has taken him to court. He recently sold 6 billion of his Tesla shares just in case he is forced to buy twitter.
To many Man-U fans Glazers is perceived as having a lack of ambition to bring in top players to the club after the they finished sixth in the English Premier League last season, while rivals Manchester City won a second successive title.
The football club had a market capitalisation of $2.08 billion, as of Tuesday’s stock market close.
Manchester United fans have in recent years protested against the Glazers, who bought the club for 790 million pounds ($955.51 million) in 2005, due to the team’s struggles on the pitch.
