Liverpool FC Forum

[Theo@home]

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from the Daily Mail.

[SouthCoastShankly]

BBC Business News

Liverpool says club may get bid

Liverpool Football Club has said it is in talks that could lead to an offer for the club.

In a statement, the club said that is was in "continuing discussions with a number of parties regarding a potential investment of new funds".

"Although the structure of any such investment is uncertain, it may include an offer for the entire share capital of the club," it added.

Liverpool said shareholders would be kept updated "as appropriate".

Spanish multi-millionaire Juan Villalonga, who was formerly the president of telecoms firm Telefonica, has been linked with the club in recent days.

In March 2004, Liverpool appointed financial advisers Hawkpoint in a move to seek new investors.

Local building magnate Steve Morgan failed in his bid to buy into the club, and Liverpool have also been linked with US billionaire Robert Kraft.

Liverpool are seeking to fund a £170m ground move and also raise cash to strengthen their squad.

[Anfield rapper]

From SSN

Liverpool have confirmed they are in talks with investors about a possible takeover bid for the club.

The European champions have been seeking potential investment for some time as they look to fund plans to move away from Anfield.

Spanish tycoon Juan Villalonga is the latest name to be linked with gaining a financial interest in the club.

The likes of local businessman Steve Morgan, the Thailand government and American investors the Kraft group have all been credited with an interest in investing in Liverpool, but no deal came to fruition.

However, the club have now confirmed that they have held talks with a number of investors which could lead to an offer for the club.

"The board of Liverpool FC has noted the recent press speculation concerning possible third-party investment into the club and can confirm that it is continuing discussions with a number of parties regarding a potential investment of new funds into the club," read a club statement.

"Although the structure of any such investment is uncertain, it may include an offer for the entire share capital of the club.

"Shareholders will be kept updated as appropriate."

Current Liverpool chairman David Moores has a 51 percent stake in the club and it is believed he is ready to sell his stake so that new funds can be made available.

[The_Rock]

Its kind of catch 22 here....i want new investment..at the same time, i don't really want moores to give up his chairman post.....

lets just wait and see....

[Flashard]

hmmm???

Gonna hold judgment on this till there is a bit more meat on the bones.

[AlanHansen]

That statement we've put out isn't any different to what we've been saying for the past few years. 

If it's a proper takeover we won't know anything till it's done and dusted anyway.

[Anfield rapper]

Yeah its a nervous time for everyone, but i'm sure Moores has the best interests of the club at heart and wouldn't sell unless it was a good move for the club. I just don't think he has the money to invest anymore in our club and if we want to be as successful as we have been we need someone who can invest in the club and promote us to the rest of the world something that i think has held us back a bit.

[Leonmc0708]

kjhbf lkjdslkhbgdf

[ynwa]

there is going to be news on it about 12:00 and 12:30 on sky sports news. it meant to bee a 200 million bib or they are trying to get more

[Redman in wales]

kjhbf lkjdslkhbgdf

er no. its not old....

... from .tv

REDS' STATEMENT ON INVESTMENT SEARCH
Liverpoolfc.tv 29 March 2006 
  Liverpool have today confirmed they are still talking to a number of parties as they continue their search for investment into the club. 
Following further speculation at the weekend, the Reds have today released a statement which reads as follows.
 
"The board of Liverpool FC has noted the recent press speculation concerning possible third-party investment into the club and can confirm that it is continuing discussions with a number of parties regarding a potential investment of new funds into the club.
 
"Although the structure of any such investment is uncertain, it may include an offer for the entire share capital of the club. Shareholders will be kept updated as appropriate."

[stmichael]

Sky Sports News saying it is a consortium headed by Houllier and Ian Ridley.

Apparently Ged made loads of money from transfers and getting sacked. He will re-install Ridley as press officer and make himself boss.

The deal hinges, apparently, on whether David Moores will make him an honourary Champions League winners medal for his part in last year's triumph.

Ridley wants to bring in Claridge as assistant boss and Tony Adams as an lfc.tv commentator.

Sounds like speculation to me.

[lakes10]

one thing that must not happen is a Spanish take over

[48-1119859832]

Its kind of catch 22 here....i want new investment..at the same time, i don't really want moores to give up his chairman post.....

lets just wait and see....

I agree; Liverpool is in very safe hands with David and I dread to think who could replace him and have the best interests of Liverpool like he has over the years. He's a rare breed of a person who wants what's best for the club & not his wallet, unlike Ambramovich and the ppl listed above.

I'd like to see Kraft invest altho I'm wary of them as well as all the others being linked.

[lakes10]

this is from the bbc in 2000

Juan Villalonga, the flambouyant head of Spanish telecoms group Telefonica, has stepped down.

He became chairman in 1996. With astute purchases in Latin America he led the utility through privatisation and transformation into a world-leader. He was the architecht behind a deal between Terra, the group's internet arm, and the US search engine Lycos.

But he became ensnarled in allegations that he traded shares illegally. He also fell out with his childhood friend, the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar,
who wanted Mr Villalonga to renounce his rights to lucrative share options for political reasons.


In addition he failed to push through a merger with the Dutch telecoms company KPN.

Our editor of business programmes Martin Webber, explained the reasons for his departure:


"Juan Villalonga came to symobolise Spain's switch from a heavily state-directed economy to one which embraced much of the high-risk high-reward American style business culture. He transformed Telefonica from a state monopoly phone operator into a global media and telecoms giant.

"Telefonica built up big interests in Latin America and in mobile phones and is currently planning to buy the Lycos internet search engine. But things began to go wrong for Mr Villalonga when he fell out with his friend from childhood days: the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

"Mr Aznar wanted Mr Villalonga to renounce his rights to lucrative share options. The options were seen by some as an indication of capitalist excess and they were proving politically damaging to the centre-right party of Mr Aznar. But the Telefonica boss refused to comply with the Prime Minister's request.

"Mr Villalonga's private life also appears to have had an impact in his ulitmately unsucessful efforts to keep the confidence of his company's board. His decision to leave his wife in December 1998 to live with a former Miss Mexico meant he based himself in Miami.

"It was via a video-conference from Miami that Mr Villalonga tried, and failed, to persuade the company's board to go ahead with his plans for merger with KPN of the Netherlands earlier this year."

[lakes10]

hand here is his bio

Juan Villalonga
Ex- Manager of Telefonica

Juan Villalonga Navarro (born April 8, 1953) was appointed chairman of Telefónica, Spain's major telecom operator, in spring 1996. The post is one of the most influential in Spain. He was forced to resign in July 2000, following allegations of insider trading - but by then, he had increased the value of the company five-fold, and he left with a $25 m golden handshake. After staying in the background for seven months, his appointment to the board of directors of Univision, the US Spanish-language television network, was announced in February 2001.

Villalonga graduated in Law and Economics at the prestigious Deusto University in the Basque Country and holds a Master's in Business Administration from the Institute of Advanced Economic Studies in Barcelona. He was a partner at McKinsey & Co., based in the U.S., Portugal, Italy and Spain during his nine-year association with the consulting firm. Later he worked as a chief executive for the CS First Boston business bank's Spanish branch, and next for Bankers Trust, which sought to benefit from his excellent contacts in Madrid's political and business circles.

Villalonga was a childhood friend of Spanish premier José María Aznar, who picked Villalonga for the post of Telefónica supremo. Observers felt his appointment owed to the Spanish government's desire to have someone sympathetic, amenable and docile in the top seat at Telefónica, but Villalonga soon proved he had his own ideas on how the company should be run, and his tenure was characterized by a series of daring moves.

He consolidated the company's already strong position in Latin America, where Telefónica controls much of the telecom industry. He also concentrated on securing Telefónica's leading position in Spain in the face of new competition once the company lost the monopoly position it enjoyed until European Union regulations enforced a liberalization of the Spanish telecom market. In 1995, the first private cellular phone company (Airtel) was started. More cell phone operators and, later, land-line phone companies followed. In a final step, at the end of 2000, Telefónica was due to lose its monopoly over local telephone calls. Villalonga's strategy was to reduce the company's dependence on the Spanish market by spreading to Latin America and Europe, and by diversifying into other sectors such as television.

At the end of 1998 Villalonga launched Telefónica Interactiva, which the following year would become Terra, Telefónica's Internet portal, with the purchase and incorporation into the portal of Olé, one of the first of Spain's search engines. By September 1999 Terra had invested some $600 million buying up portal companies in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and other Latin American countries. In November 1999 Terra went public and its shares rose spectacularly, amid controversy over stock options held by Telefónica executives.

In May 2000, in its most spectacular move, Telefónica announced the purchase of America's Lycos for $12.5 billion in stock, opening the US market of 30 million Spanish speakers to their portal Terra, and giving it access to parts of the world where Terra did not have a foothold, such as Asia.

But Villalonga's relationship with the government started to become strained in 1999, when Villalonga left his wife Concha Tallada, a close friend of Aznar's wife Ana Botella, for the vivacious Adriana Abascal, 18 years his junior and widow of Mexican TV magnate Emilio Azcárraga. Aznar, facing an upcoming general election, was also worried about controversy over the Terra stock option plan benefiting top Telefónica executives. In mid-June 2000 Villalonga came under attack by the Madrid daily El Mundo, edited by Pedro J Ramirez, which reported that he'd been involved in insider trading. Villalonga came under investigation by Spain's securities watchdog committee, the CNMV, amid rumours that he would be forced to step down as Telefonica chairman. He finally handed in his resignation in July 2000.

The day after leaving Telefónica, Villalonga attended his mother's funeral in Madrid. That was to be his last public appearance in 2000, and he spent most of the year in the US, while everyone wondered what project Villalonga would turn his talents to next. A position at Cisco Systems was initially mooted. In the end, though, Villalonga joined the American Spanish-language Univision network as a board member in February 2001. Meanwhile Bob Davis, founder of Lycos with whom Villalonga had hatched the Terra-Lycos match, resigned as CE of the resulting company at the beginning of February. He had gotten along famously with Villalonga, but never managed to establish a good working relationship with the new Terra Lycos president, Joaquim Agut, appointed after Villalonga's departure.