Hat tip to Hampshire’s Daily Echo, which reported this morning that Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft alongside Bill Gates, has approached cash-strapped Southampton football club with a takeover offer.
Southampton Leisure, the club’s listed parent, released a statement on Friday afternoon confirming an approach, but fell short of naming the buyer.
Clearly, no self-respecting British football club should be without a billionaire — be they American or Russian. Manchester United is owned by Malcolm Glazer, Liverpool was recently taken over by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, while Randy Lerner acquired Aston Villa last year. Chelsea is Chelski, while the visionary Alexandre Gaydamark is bankrolling a dynamic future for Pompey. Meanwhile, Stan Kroenke is stakebuilding at Arsenal.
Mr Allen should be in a position to do what Michael Wilde, who replaced Rupert Lowe as chairman last summer and who was then himself ousted in February, struggled to do — namely find the money to rebuild the Scummers’ tatty reputation. He’s the 19th richest man in the world, according to Forbes, with an estimated fortune of£18bn.
The move represents a diversification for Mr Allen, sport-wise as well as geographically. He already owns the Seattle Seahawks, an American football team in Seattle, and the Portland Trailblazers basketball team.
Quoting a source close to Allen, the Daily Echo said he “believes there is long term investment value in UK soccer,” adding: “Southampton is a sleeping giant, a family-supported club with traditional values, and we see the value in taking the brand global.”
Global!
“Does this mean the team will take ages to get started and fall over every five minutes, like Micro$ost software?,” asked Barry Mung, a Daily Echo reader posting a comment on the paper’s website, thisis hampshire.net
Declaration of interest: the author of this post was raised in Portsmouth.