It appears that the Glazer family could be playing a very high stakes game of poker at Man United, after journalist Ben Jacobs noted that there’s likely to be yet another stage in the bidding process as part of the takeover talks.
Seemingly not content with driving up the price to what’s expected to be record levels, Jacobs wrote in his column for CaughtOffside that sources suggest it’s “very possible” that the extra bidding stage will be added in order to create “competitive tension.”
The deal was never going to be a straightforward one in any event, however, one has to question whether the Glazers can really afford to see prospective bidders walking away because the current owners are trying to eek every last pound out of any deal.
Jacobs goes on to say that both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim, who appear to be the front runners at this stage, do not want to get involved in a bidding war and nor do they wish to overpay for the club.
‘But there will be no reckless bidding. This is all still about business value not vanity. As Ratcliffe put it when speaking to the Wall Street Journal: “How do you decide the price of a painting? How do you decide the price of a house? It’s not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint. What you don’t want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently,”’ Jacobs wrote.
There are other groups and minority investors still in the process at this stage, and according to Jacobs it’s even possible that Raine Group, who are working on behalf of the Glazer family, could alienate many involved in the process by naming a preferred bidder.
In so doing, it would allow a period of exclusivity and potentially see the deal done quickly and to the detriment of all other parties.
For the long-suffering United fans a swift resolution is surely preferred, though inevitably there will be multiple hoops to jump through, with these deals taking time to progress to completion.