New England Sports Ventures, the company that owns the Boston Red Sox, has made an offer to buy Liverpool FC.
The New England is one of two groups that are believed to have made offers of between $445 and $475 million for the club. Tom Hicks is said to be not be interested in selling at this price as he makes no money from the deal as Liverpool have debts of around $450 million that need to be paid by 15 October.
From the Liverpool web site:
The Board of Directors have received two excellent financial offers to buy the Club that would repay all its long-term debt. A Board meeting was called today to review these bids and approve a sale. Shortly prior to the meeting, the owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – sought to remove Managing Director Christian Purslow and Commercial Director Ian Ayre from the Board, seeking to replace them with Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutcheon.
This matter is now subject to legal review and a further announcement will be made in due course.
Meanwhile Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre continue to explore every possible route to achieving a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity.
Hicks and Gillett have released their own statement saying the offers ‘significantly undervalued the club’ and pledged to fight any quick sale while continuing to search for a suitable buyer.
The problem they have is nobody will pay the $600 million that they want for the club, not when Liverpool’s owners have to come up with £257million by 15 October, money they don’t have. At that point, the banks could take over the club and then the decision will be out of Hicks and Gillett’s hands.
