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No, Apple Isn't Planning to Buy Manchester United

I don’t expect Apple to look at any other club other than Barca. Of course for the Snob Value. But now they could also look at PSG to make Messi sell iStuff to South Americans
 
MacRumors said:


Apple is not currently planning to purchase Premier League club Manchester United, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Manchester-United-flag.jpeg

A report earlier today from British tabloid The Daily Star claimed that Apple had expressed an interest in buying Manchester United for around $7 billion, but our source with direct knowledge of the situation said the report is false.

Manchester United has been majority owned by the Glazer family since 2005. The club announced on Tuesday that its board planned to "explore strategic alternatives," including a potential sale of the club. The news came on the same day that Manchester United announced that star player Cristiano Ronaldo would be leaving the club.

While it has no plans to buy Manchester United, Apple has been pushing into sports content. The company partnered with the MLB to air a weekly "Friday Night Baseball" doubleheader on Apple TV+ during the 2022 regular season, and it will be the exclusive provider of MLS games for the next 10 years. Apple is reportedly also considered a frontrunner for streaming rights to the NFL's Sunday Ticket package starting next season.

Article Link: No, Apple Isn't Planning to Buy Manchester United
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I very much doubt Apple would buy *any* club but I also very much doubt that Macrumours has access to the kind of top exec at Apple that could confirm or deny it.

Why would apple spend 6 billion on Man Utd? Maybe because they have a billion followers? If Utd were a social network they would be in the top 10. Could Apple buy Snap Chat for 6 billion? I doubt it... If Apple bought Utd it would not be to make a profit!
 
It doesn't even matter who the source of the rumor is - the whole thing just makes 0.0 sense.

Apple literally gains nothing of significant value from owning a sports club, because the main things you get for owning a sports team is vanity (applies to individuals, not companies) and visibility (can be much easier and cheaper be acquired by becoming the main sponsor of the team).
 
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The glazers already know who they are selling to.

You don’t just “put the club up for sale” unless you’ve got prospective buyers already lined up, but do it publicly invade you get a last minute mega bid that trumps it
 
bigchrisfgb said:
Thing is Man Utd is much worse. Buy them (which is never going to happen) and every football fan who isn’t a Man Utd fan will avoid Apple.

Apple were never going to buy Man Utd or any football team. It makes no sense. Apple buys companies that can enhance a product or service. They have passed on buying Disney, Netflix, Spotify, and Tesla in recent years. A football club does not offer them anything at all, especially for the money it will cost to buy the club and then run it.
The most they could get out of it is by say having MUTV as an exclusive to Apple TV+, even then that could be achieved with a sponsorship deal.

Buying Man Utd or any other team in say the Premier League would mean that they would never be allowed to even bid on the rights for the Premier League. There was a big discussion about Emirates when they went to sponsor the FA Cup, but already sponsored Arsenal.

The Daily Star literally has never broke any news, especially in Sport. It is barely even a newspaper, it is literally just full of random sex stories, and big headlines that are completely fabricated. It prides itself on the fact that it still has a page 3 model which is literally what sells the newspaper. So much for journalism eh?
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Well said, friend. The whole idea of buying a sports team makes no sense, regardless of where the rumor came from.
 
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Whilst it could well be baloney. Acquiring Man Utd would give Apple a global presence in the world’s most popular sport. It would also provide a platform from which to build an international business in sports programming, alongside the programming it already offers via its service. By owning Man Utd, the company could relatively easily make a bid to broadcast Premier League matches on a global basis. That would help to sell an awful lot of Apple TV subscriptions and phones across the world. The support Man Utd have in Asia and India is phenomenal. Man Utd are a global brand themselves who make a huge amount of money from merchandise, sponsorship and tv rights. The Glazers somehow mortgaged the club without a deposit, never invested and only taken money out. Run properly Man Utd are a cash cow.
 
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wanha said:
Well said, friend. The whole idea of buying a sports team makes no sense, regardless of where the rumor came from.
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United arent just any sports team though. They are the biggest in the world, and there is absolutely massive potential for a new owner right now.
 
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Carlson-online said:
United arent just any sports team though. They are the biggest in the world, and there is absolutely massive potential for a new owner right now.
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Manchester United's yearly revenue in 2021 was $683 million.

That's $0.683 billion vs Apple's $365 billion.

Manchester United doesn't solve Apple's growth problem in any way. They need billions in growth, not millions.

And if Apple want to tap into Manchester United's popularity, they can just become the main sponsors of the team for pennies on the dollar compared to actually buying the team.
 
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Moonjumper said:
I do believe it, the story came from the Manchester City fan. And Sharp wasn't an invisible brand back then, it was on TV all the time on the shirts of a football club many dislike.
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Yes but how many view cams or microwaves would somebody want? They were visible purely because of their sponsorship of United, as opposed to making products than anybody actually bought.

It seems pretty clear that United could command a vastly bigger sponsorship deal by the time the Sharp deal expired, and hence they went to Vodafone. A few bitter comments from City fans should be taken with vast amounts of salt!
 
pauloregan said:
Of course it's not true. They couldn't bid for the rights to broadcast the Premier League in the medium/long term if they own Man Utd. Made no sense at all.
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Have the rules changes then? Remember Sky tried to buy the club back in 99
 
Would have been interesting to see Apple try to justify this to shareholders, given these clubs are mostly loss-making toys for billionaires, or if they do make money it's sporadic and quite small sums.
 
Thank god they don't. Or else there'd be "iGoals" and the whole team would be immortalized as a collection of super-cringy memojis.
 
Duncan-UK said:
What - of winning everything? Well we've been going out of our way to dispel that for the last ten years!!
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Point being that Manchester Utd are the English version of the New England Patriots. Hope that makes it clearer.
 
Eriamjh1138@DAN said:
It’s not likely true because I think this is planted to find leakers within Apple.
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Can you walk me through how this works?

How do you find leakers on something that doesn't exist and has - in all likelihood - never even been discussed?
 
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