Liverpool agree takeover deal
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Liverpool agree sale to Gillett and Hicks
Outgoing chairman David Moores revealed his desire to see his beloved Liverpool take 'a great step forward' convinced him to sell the club to American tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Moores will become honorary life president after the Liverpool board agreed terms 'of a recommended cash offer' to be made by Kop Football Limited.
A Stock Exchange statement revealed the board 'unanimously recommends' that shareholders accept the offer from NHL franchise owners Gillett and Hicks.
Moores said: 'I believe this is a great step forward for Liverpool, its shareholders and its fans.
'This club is my passion and forms a huge part of my life. After much careful consideration, I have agreed to sell my shares to assist in securing the investment needed for the new stadium and for the playing squad.
'I urge all my fellow shareholders to do the same and to support the offer. By doing so, I believe you will be backing the successful future of Liverpool Football Club.
Hicks and Gillett will split the £470million cost of taking over the club on a 50-50 basis, with around £255million going to buy the shareholding and take over the £80million debt, and a further £215million on the stadium.
The takeover means Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa will all be in American hands.
Malcolm Glazer, owner of American football's (NFL) Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owns United and Randy Lerner, owner of NFL's Cleveland Browns, bought Aston Villa last year. -
KOP A LOAD OF THIS ... Liverpool's new owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks
LIVERPOOL'S new owners have set their sights on winning the Premiership.
American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks admit they do not know much about football but have promised to give Rafa Benitez the support he needs to build a successful squad. Gillett said: "Rick Parry told me that Bill Shankly once said 'First is first and second is nowhere' — and that sounds good to us.
"We had the privilege of spending some time last night with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher and they gave us a clear message. "They are all about winning and feeding on the passion from the fans. "They also spoke extremely warmly about Rafael Benitez and made us aware they feel this man is truly one of the great geniuses. "Steve and Jamie wanted to communicate to us the feeling from the dressing room was of great respect for the management team."
Gillett added: "We're not going to sit here and pretend to be the most knowledgeable of Liverpool fans because that's clearly not true. "I can say, though, that our families are big football supporters and we have been watching European football for several years.
"You quickly see this is the most popular sport in the world and that this is one of the most popular clubs. "To have the opportunity of getting involved here is a rare privilege." -
good deal given their experience in dealing the business side of sports
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Yeah, better than the DIC deal... Rafael Benitez was so happy that he got down on his knees and talk to the ball...Originally posted by used:good deal given their experience in dealing the business side of sports
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Alonso - Takeover can boost Reds
Xabi Alonso is confident the takeover of Liverpool by American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks can help the Reds challenge the recent dominance of Manchester United and Chelsea.
It is 17 years since Liverpool were last crowned champions of England and this season they trail the Red Devils and Jose Mourinho's side in the race for the Barclays Premiership title but Alonso, currently preparing for Spain's friendly with England at Old Trafford on Wednesday, believes the takeover can help change the picture.
"Can the takeover help us challenge Manchester United and Chelsea? If it helps to develop the club and to have more potential, it will be welcome," said Alonso. "We all know the great traditions and history of Liverpool Football Club and that is something important for the supporters and the club."
He added: "They (Gillett and Hicks) will be more than welcome and I hope it will mean more success for Liverpool and bolster the structure of the club." -
sugar daddy
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Sugar daddies or milking daddies ?Originally posted by anhydrouscoppersulphate:sugar daddy 
The ink is not even dry on the deal and they are talking about increasing ticket prices liao...
Yanks: Kop prices could rise
GEORGE GILLETT and Tom Hicks have warned fans that ticket prices may rise.
The Reds are looking to move to a new stadium in Stanley Park within the next few years in order to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea.
But they hope to ensure they do not price families and real fans out of the game completely.
Gillett said: “Costs will go up and if they do you have to reflect that in things like the value of tickets.
"ThatÂ’s the inevitable equation. But as the new stadium and the fans experience changes it wouldnÂ’t surprise me.
“But we will look to offer a bigger variety of prices — at the moment they only have two different prices.
“You want to make sure you have a substantial number of seats that are affordable for families.” -
How Hicks became the bearer of bad signings
Tom Hicks may be keen to buy great players for the Reds, but if history repeats itself his deals could be disastrous. Facing the English media yesterday, George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks certainly made all the right noises, talking about Liverpool's history and announcing that Rick Parry would continue to run the business.
It may have convinced the red half of Merseyside that the American duo realise they have bought something worth far more than dollars and cents, but the denizens of the Kop should note that, whereas Gillett has earned a reputation in Montreal for not interfering with the on-ice affairs of the Canadiens, Hicks's hands-on involvement in the worst trade in modern baseball led one American newspaper to dub him "Tom Dumb".
His promise yesterday to make funds available if a great player was on the market should make Liverpool fans sit up. In the winter of 2000 he lured Alex Rodriguez, the best player in baseball, to the Texas Rangers with a 10-year, $252m (£128m) contract.
The largest in the history of the sport and slightly more than he had paid to buy the entire club from a group fronted by his close friend George W Bush three years earlier, the deal had several problems. No one else had been willing to pay within $100m of that sum for A-Rod's services, so Hicks ended up spectacularly outbidding himself. Worse still, in emptying the coffers for the 25-year-old short-stop he neglected to budget for the wages of the 24 other players who make up a squad.
"I like to win. I like to build things, whether it's a $2bn corporate acquisition or a chance to win the World Series," Hicks said back then. "This is a chance for our team to win a World Series and leapfrog into an area where we've never been before."
From day one the signing was doomed. With no funds available for quality pitchers, the bedrock of every good side, the Rangers at one point had the seventh-highest payroll and one of the worst teams. "Hopefully, when it's over," said Rodriguez at the time, "they won't be calling Mr Hicks a fool but the wisest man in baseball. Only time will tell. I plan to pay him back and win him a few championships."
Time eventually told. By the end of the 2003 campaign everybody realised that Texas badly needed to trade Rodriguez in order to build a more balanced line-up and become competitive again. Even that process was fraught. After a long-drawn-out negotiation with the Boston Red Sox which came to nothing, Hicks appointed Rodriguez club captain and told fans his star player would see out the full decade of his contract. "A side benefit of Alex now being the official leader of our team is that our fans are now confident that Alex is going to be here," said the owner. "If we don't win, the fans are going to be mad. But we're going to win."
A couple of weeks after delivering that guarantee he traded Rodriguez to the New York Yankees in embarrassing circumstances, paying the richest club in baseball to take the player off his hands. Having blamed the Rangers owner for inflating all baseball salaries with the original deal - the highest-paid player before Hicks picked up A-Rod in December 2000 was on $17.5m a year - many in the sport sniggered at the terms of the deal. With $179m still owed to Rodriguez, Hicks paid him $67m to persuade him to leave, allowing the Yankees to sign him on a bargain $16m a year. Added to the money he had already earned in Arlington, Rodriguez had had $140m from Hicks for three futile seasons - not the best entry on the owner's CV. -
Liverpool fans angry over Dubai takeover collapse
LIVERPOOL, (AFP) - The head of Liverpool's main supporters group on Wednesday voiced dismay over the collapse of talks on a takeover of the club by Dubai International Capital.
DIC pulled out of talks after the Liverpool board asked for more time to examine a rival and higher offer from American tycoon George Gillett.
The unexpected twist in the long-running saga of Liverpool's attempts to secure new investment came as a surprise to Les Lawson, spokesman for the Liverpool Supporters' Club.
"We had come to terms with the Dubai bid and what it entailed, and the fans accepted that they were fans of the club of long standing and understood the history and heritage of Liverpool," Lawson said. "Then Gillett comes along and muddies the water. We are worried now about the future and the fact that the Dubai bid had gone on so long and now we are in another period of uncertainty.
"This has been going on for years. Surely it should have been clear by now what the Dubai people wanted. "The Dubai group were big fans, but we do not know too much about this guy, who it seems has tried to buy other clubs.
"The Dubai deal had been sold to us as being one from people who understood the traditions and heritage of the club. Rick Parry (chief executive) said that was one of the key issues, that the Dubai people did appreciate our history. "Now we are going to have to wait and see what Gillett wants and does in the future."
DIC had been anticipating a formal acceptance of their takeover plans on Wednesday afternoon. But that was thrown into doubt when the Liverpool board stalled on a decision on Tuesday evening and the investment arm of the Gulf Emirate pre-empted an increasingly likely rejection by taking their offer of the table and insisting that they would not be increasing it.
Sameer Al Ansari, the executive chairman and chief executive of DIC, said the company deeply regretted that talks had broken down after all the work they had done to convince everyone at Liverpool that they had the club's long-term interests at heart.
"I am sure I will be back at Anfield with my family soon to support my team, as I have done so in the last 30-plus years," Al Ansari said. "In the meantime, I wish the manager, the players and everyone connected with the club the best of fortune for the challenges ahead and will make sure that I am there the day they lift the Premiership trophy."