$200 Million Takeover

[JLohn]

In February 2013, Fortune magazine, which is owned by Time Warner, did an investigation into the Guggenheim Partners. They noted that when Magic Johnson bought the Los Angeles Dodgers he was joined by a team which turned out to be the Guggenheim Partners and it was "the main force in the deal, and the eye-popping Dodgers acquisition has been only one of a handful drawing ever more attention to the firm".

 

Later in the article they said that since the Guggenheim Partners managed so many billions in assets that they were almost like a private equity firm. Also, they noted that the group is very secretive in its dealings and likes to work behind the scenes with its members consisting of former employees of Bear Stearns, Yahooand Apollo. At the end of the article they noted that the partners might buy a sports TV channel owned by Time Warner and if not that, it is "on the hunt for deals"

[GENTLEMAN]

is the baseball owner correct though? Its from the Mirror. Nursey came out and said theres no takeover talk and that Villa denied it and now his colleague is saying.. oh yes there is one.

 

Sounds like BS to me.

The Mirror are guessing with a baseball owner. Nobody knows the identity of the buyer(s) yet, I do not think it will be a single person though but more likely a bigger business group which posters have suggested on this thread.

[maqroll]

The Dodgers cost 1 billion US...that group could buy Villa without even thinking it through...

[HalfTimePost]

You could point out any of a hundred Billionaires that like to do their business secretively though with respect.

 

Anyway, Mark Walter, (Founder of Guggenheim Partners) is worth around $2billion. From a few things i've read he's very much a quiet, stay-out-of the limelight kind of guy and seems to be described as 'decent' quite a lot. When he bought the LA Dodgers he even paid some contractors that weren't paid by the previous owners. On the 'quiet' front he seems like somebody Randy would like. He even had Magic Johnson as the public-figurehead for the bid despite it being majority owned by Walter.

 

Anyway, on Guggenheim (which has over $170 billion in assets), this was on the wiki for when they bought the Dodgers for $2.14 billion (despite it being estimated to only be worth $1.4 billion) 

 

 

 

In March 2012, Guggenheim Baseball Management acquired the Los Angeles Dodgers team for $2.15 billion in cash.^[17] The consortium consisted of Guggenheim controlling partner Mark Walter, former Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson and partners Peter Guber, Stan Kasten, Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly.^[18] The acquisition includes the surrounding land and parking lot of Dodger Stadium.^[19] Mark Walter said of the acquisition: "It's a lot of money, but if we do our jobs right...the long-term point of view is that people will see that the value was there." ^[20]

 

The renovating of land around the stadium sounds a lot like what City are doing, and would be great for the area around Villa Park.

 

That said I really don't think it will be Guggenheim.

[suttonpaul]

Lerner came in with great intentions albeit from a business point of view rather than any great love of AVFC. It took him 3 years to realise that it would take a lot more investment than he'd thought originally.

He's paid something like £120mil to purchase the club, invested in several projects such as the training ground, hospitality areas, Holte pub etc. These are all things that will have increased the clubs value & make it a more attractive proposition to potential buyers.

As I see it, he's made a business gamble that failed, he needs to cut his losses-The longer he remains in charge, the bigger the drain on his finances.

New owners will inevitably invest more than Lerner has these past few seasons which can only be good for us fans-Maybe a consortium is a better option in terms of the amount that will be injected into the club.

He paid 62m and hardly any premier league chairmen come into the league to make money. Lerner certainly didn't

[Butterfingers]

He paid £62m to Ellis & the same again in a compulsory buy out of all shareholders

[suttonpaul]

He paid £62m to Ellis & the same again in a compulsory buy out of all shareholders

Nope he paid 62.6m for the entire club, Ellis had about a third of that

[smetrov]

 

He paid £62m to Ellis & the same again in a compulsory buy out of all shareholders

Nope he paid 62.6m for the entire club, Ellis had about a third of that

 

 

This keeps cropping up - my understanding\memory  was he brought theEllis shares for £62m - then brought everyone else's  for a similar amount.....?

[suttonpaul]

Look it up

[NurembergVillan]

 

 

On August 14, 2006 it was confirmed that Lerner had reached an agreement of £62.6 million with Aston Villa for a takeover of the club. The statement to the London Stock Exchange confirmed that 60% of the club's shares, including the 39% stake of Doug Ellis had been sold to Lerner, beating competition from consortia led by Michael Neville, Nicholas Padfield QC, and Athole Still. At this stage, the sale still awaited the approval of the shareholders of Aston Villa, although it was expected to be approved without a hitch.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Lerner#Aston_Villa

[leviramsey]

He paid £62m to Ellis & the same again in a compulsory buy out of all shareholders

Nope he paid 62.6m for the entire club, Ellis had about a third of that

 

This keeps cropping up - my understanding\memory  was he brought theEllis shares for £62m - then brought everyone else's  for a similar amount.....?

GBP62.6m

Takeover amounts are always quoted as the value for all shares.

[suttonpaul]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-special-feature-randy-6559703

There's three links that say 62.6

Edited April 20, 2014 by suttonpaul

[Risso]

 

 

Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.

Yeah they'll do.

 

I'm not sure they'd be much of an improvement on Lerner.  Baseball owners tend not to be too wealthy, relatively speaking, and rather hands-off and distant, too.

Liverpool's owner is a baseball club owner and he seems to know what he is doing.

 

 

 

I've just seen a report that lists the 10 richest MLB owners, and they're all worth at least $1bn, with the Liverpool owner at no 8.  Plenty of rich people in baseball it would seem.  Although the name of the second richest made, me shudder.  Theodore Lerner.  Yikes.

[cbr600rr]

if villa were sold 200m the new buyers will want to maintain their out lay, i hope the new owners have "money to spend" & not owners who are asset rich.

 

if RL  sold villa on the "cheap" you may get owners in the tan/young bracket.

 

with the state of AVFC today it need a lot of cash injected in & if this take over is not signed by june i fear for the club next year .

[leviramsey]

Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.

Yeah they'll do.

 

I'm not sure they'd be much of an improvement on Lerner.  Baseball owners tend not to be too wealthy, relatively speaking, and rather hands-off and distant, too.

Liverpool's owner is a baseball club owner and he seems to know what he is doing.

 

 

I've just seen a report that lists the 10 richest MLB owners, and they're all worth at least $1bn, with the Liverpool owner at no 8.  Plenty of rich people in baseball it would seem.  Although the name of the second richest made, me shudder.  Theodore Lerner.  Yikes.

Baseball is also the only one of the North American sports which doesn't have a salary cap or significant revenue sharing; economically it's the most similar of the bunch to football.

[McGregor1888]

 

 

 

Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.

Yeah they'll do.

 

I'm not sure they'd be much of an improvement on Lerner.  Baseball owners tend not to be too wealthy, relatively speaking, and rather hands-off and distant, too.

Liverpool's owner is a baseball club owner and he seems to know what he is doing.

 

 

 

I've just seen a report that lists the 10 richest MLB owners, and they're all worth at least $1bn, with the Liverpool owner at no 8.  Plenty of rich people in baseball it would seem.  Although the name of the second richest made, me shudder.  Theodore Lerner.  Yikes.

 

If we end up with a (single) owner  worth, say, 1-2 billion, I fear we will be no better off than we are now.  I know beggars can't be choosers and we have no divine right to success BUT we desperately need dynamic people with a plan and genuine ambition to come on board.  Looking through that list of owners there are a couple of guys who might be good for Villa but, as far as I can see, most of them seem to be low-key, hands-off men with no track record of building winning sports teams.  Taken individually they don't seem to have the wealth that could get us back up there.  Hopefully, if we do get one of these baseball guys in, he will be a figurehead for a larger consortium with the backing and intent to make a huge impact on our club and the region.  If ever we needed people who can think and dream big it is now.

[AVFCforever1991]

 

 

 

Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.

Yeah they'll do.

 

I'm not sure they'd be much of an improvement on Lerner.  Baseball owners tend not to be too wealthy, relatively speaking, and rather hands-off and distant, too.

Liverpool's owner is a baseball club owner and he seems to know what he is doing.

 

 

 

I've just seen a report that lists the 10 richest MLB owners, and they're all worth at least $1bn, with the Liverpool owner at no 8.  Plenty of rich people in baseball it would seem.  Although the name of the second richest made, me shudder.  Theodore Lerner.  Yikes.

 

 

That's Randy's evil twin brother...

[villabromsgrove]

Lerner bought AVFC (a public limited company) for £62 million approx. Ellis I believe owned a fraction over 40% of the share holding, which equated to £25 million approx. The balance of the £62 million was paid out to other shareholders. This is off the top of my head as I haven't trawled back, but I'm fairly sure the figures are reasonably accurate.

[John]

Randy also agreed to put £20m on top of the £62m or so he gave HDE for player purchases as his share was valued at £82m. 

[Rugeley Villa]

Obviously the london clubs have huge potential purely because there london clubs. But if I had too name some clubs who have huge potential the three clubs that come in my head are leeds,newcastle and villa. I'm not getting too excited but hopefully there is something in this. We need our club too be challenging the top clubs, not saying league titles are in view just yet but I really hope someone can come in and give our club a huge push. Might take a few years but I can handle that.