Not sure if this has been posted, so apologies if it's old news.
http://english.caixin.com/2016-05-20/100946170.html
"American billionaire Randy Lerner, who bought Aston Villa in 2006 for 62.2 million pounds, put the club up for sale in 2014. Six companies showed interest, Xia said, but the final competing bidders were Recon and the American software company Oracle Corp.
Lerner eventually chose to sell to Recon in part because China provides a large fan base for English soccer teams, Xia said."
Wow.