William Gallagher
A report from the UK claims that Tim Cook is keen on Apple buying Manchester United, one of the UK's most famous and successful sports teams.
Britain's Daily Star tabloid newspaper is reporting that Apple is considering paying $6.9 billion for the Premier League football team, Manchester United. It's one of the League's highest-profile teams, and is where David Beckham first came to fame.
According to the newspaper, the current owners are the Glazers, said to be US billionaires. Reportedly, the Glazers initially wanted $9.9 billion for the team, but have decided to sell to the highest bidder.
The paper claims that Apple is one of the firms that wants to discuss a potential deal to take over the team.
Reportedly, Tim Cook is keen to explore unspecified opportunities that owning Man U would bring to Apple. He is said to be lining up talks with the banks appointed to oversee the sale.
The Daily Star further says that Apple "could" fund the building of a new stadium. Manchester United's current stadium, Old Trafford, is in need of renovation and the owners have recently vacillated between repairs and restoration, or an entirely new build.
Neither Apple nor the owners of Manchester United have commented, and the Daily Star gives no attribution or any indication of sources.
Such a purchase would be the first time Apple bought a sports team, but it has famously has a fictional one with "Ted Lasso." It has recently used its "Ted Lasso" characters to promote the World Cup.
Apple TV+ has also recently greatly expanded its soccer coverage, though through a deal with the US Major Soccer League, rather than the UK's Premier League.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
35 Comments
Please pardon my ignorance, but why? “Explore unspecified opportunities”? I know that Tim and Elon are polar opposites, but it sounds a lot like the decision to buy Twitter. Except that I don’t think Tim would immediately fire half the players!
I could imagine a push towards developing next level experiences with a vision to where their technologies are going. They would apply that to cars. They could apply that to next generation of content creation for Apple TV. Regarding live sports, more than just owning broadcast rights..now they could own the team and build the first Apple Stadium. 3D 360 degree video broadcast cameras throughout allowing viewers at home and around the world to experience the game like never before with their Apple AR/VR glasses, spacial audio...basically putting your experience inside the stadium. Layers and layers of technology, storytelling and marketing.
This sounds like a lame attempt at propping up the sale price.
Err, ah, nope.
Of course there’s the headline: Time Cook wants Apple to buy...
Followed by the first sentence: A report claims...
And we fall for it every stinking time.
This is the daily star, complete BS in that paper !