It has been reported that the Glazer family, the besieged Manchester United owners, are in talks with US firm Apollo to sell a minority stake of the club.
As reported in the Daily Mail, The Glazer family have entered into exclusive talks with the private equity company but insist Joel and Avram Glazer are not prepared to cede control of the club and will maintain their shares.
Other Glazer family members are believed to be wanting out and are willing to sell their stake to Apollo.
On the surface this looks to be a move which could eventually lead to the Glazers selling more shares and thus reducing their influence at the club which is what majority, if not all, United fans want. The reality however, is unfortunately slightly different and makes for shocking reading.
Apollo, the company who wants to purchase the stake, is a private equity company, which buys shares in businesses and expects a profit in return by either selling these shares or taking out dividends at a later date.
This in itself could lead to issues later down the line. If a majority buyer did come in for United you can be sure Apollo would want a healthy return on any investments, leading to a potentially inflated price. This may put potential buyers off completely.
Things get worse, Apollo as a company have a history of accusations of fraud and scams, something picked up by anti Glazer movement ‘BoycottGlazers’ on Twitter. What’s even more sinister and disgusting, Apollo seems to still…
