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Paul Allen Takover


Yorkshire Saint

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He did approach the club ( or his representatives did ) , although it was never as close to going through as some people suggested.

 

Source - A director of the club at the time.

 

I can confirm this, i heard from sources inside the club, very reliable but i am not going to name that his representatives did speak to the club and were seriously considering an offer, he was rumoured to be put off by certain directors unwilling to negotiate on their share prices and board room hostilities and also the fact that a CCC at £50m was probably not a good investment.

Edited by Turkish
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He did approach the club ( or his representatives did ) , although it was never as close to going through as some people suggested.

 

Source - A director of the club at the time.

 

True of what I heard as well. Heard from a number of people high up in the club and also on opposite warring sides at the time.

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Paul Allen did not make any approach to the club. His company confirmed as much.

 

There was an approach from someone who said he represented Allen's business deals. Turns out he was not connected other than he arranged a jet lease for Allen.

 

Some of the Directors of the club truely believed Allen was behind the initial approach but Allen has always denied it. I am now firmly of the opinion Allen and his company was never involved. (Which is a change from my previous stance)

 

And no Trousers, I never sent ny email.

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Paul Allen did not make any approach to the club. His company confirmed as much.

 

There was an approach from someone who said he represented Allen's business deals. Turns out he was not connected other than he arranged a jet lease for Allen.

 

*cough* Tommac *cough*

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I read on another saints forum at the time that the Paul Allen stuff was one big con to increase the share price to allow various people to sell shares

 

Artificially inflating the share price......hmmm, wouldn't that be illegal though.....*rubs chin*

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But didn't all of that help bizzarely lead to our take-over?

 

Somewhere, I'm sure I read that the 1st time Cortese became aware of the club was when he'd read the Paul Allen rumours online.

 

*update* Here's the link - Thought i was going daft http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/back_from_the_brink_southampto.html?page=15

 

 

Amazing to think that all of that hot air did in fact come to some good!

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I read on another saints forum at the time that the Paul Allen stuff was one big con to increase the share price to allow various people to sell shares. It also enabled this Hone chap to put the PLC in a lockdown mode.

 

This is partly true. Staff at the club at the time were told that not to believe what they read in the press about take overs as a lot of it was an attempt to make the club more attractive and appear there was a lot of interest to encourage would be buyers to put up the cash.

 

The Paul Allen stuff, whilst not being a bid or even an approach was real though, how far it got off the ground i do not know. I do know that one group came very close to a bid, someone i know very well was working until 10.30pm one night on documents for the bid but for some reason it never happened, probably the inflated share price at the time.

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This is partly true. Staff at the club at the time were told that not to believe what they read in the press about take overs as a lot of it was an attempt to make the club more attractive and appear there was a lot of interest to encourage would be buyers to put up the cash.

 

The Paul Allen stuff, whilst not being a bid or even an approach was real though, how far it got off the ground i do not know. I do know that one group came very close to a bid, someone i know very well was working until 10.30pm one night on documents for the bid but for some reason it never happened, probably the inflated share price at the time.

Jayhard?
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One thing which continues to bother me...

 

Who was behind the Merrington 'Asturius' bid?!

 

I remember at the time that they had rented office space at the Regus.

 

And had a 'placeholder' website....

 

Also around the same time as the 'NAMG hoax'....

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He did approach the club ( or his representatives did ) , although it was never as close to going through as some people suggested.

 

Source - A director of the club at the time.

 

Incorrect.

 

Someone saying there were a representative of Allen contacted the club.

 

At one of the fan's forums, one of the Wilde bunch, can't remember if it was Doos, Hoolywotsit or Hone confirmed that when they investigated further it was found that this person was not a representative of Allen.

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Incorrect.

 

Someone saying there were a representative of Allen contacted the club.

 

At one of the fan's forums, one of the Wilde bunch, can't remember if it was Doos, Hoolywotsit or Hone confirmed that when they investigated further it was found that this person was not a representative of Allen.

 

*Awaits Stu Benson Phillips replying saying that actually that is exactly what his post says but you are a bit stupid, asking for an internet link to disprove him and suggesting a visit to the pub. Or something.*

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Well there's easily enough material in that BBC article to start the rumours going again.

 

"Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has said he will commit the majority of his estimated $13.5bn (£8.8bn) fortune to philanthropy...."

 

After all if buying Saints isn't philanthropy, what is?

 

Anyone seen any good yachts lately?

 

K.

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But didn't all of that help bizzarely lead to our take-over?

 

Somewhere, I'm sure I read that the 1st time Cortese became aware of the club was when he'd read the Paul Allen rumours online.

 

*update* Here's the link - Thought i was going daft http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/back_from_the_brink_southampto.html?page=15

 

I made it all up so this would happen. You're welcome!!!

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Shame as well, because if it wasn't for certain directors making unreasonable demands then we really would have had an owner who I believe would have used SFC as his toy and thrown money left, right and centre at it.

 

That could get boring rather quickly whereas a steady controlled interest would probably last longer?

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I remember reading this at the time:

 

"he believes there is long term investment value in UK Soccer. Southampton is a sleeping giant, a family-supported club with traditional values, and we see the value in taking the brand global."

 

and thinking that it was among the clumsiest p*ss-takes I'd read about in quite a while. There is no Southampton 'brand' any more than there is a Brentford 'brand' or a Burnley 'brand'. The level of credulity was embarrassing.

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  • 4 years later...

8 years ago? Turns out he was looking for an old wreck rather than a football club all along....

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a086ccf442804bd29368e96cab349cdb/microsoft-co-founder-says-he-found-sunken-japan-wwii

 

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen says he's found a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the Philippines near where it sank over 70 years ago.

 

The apparent discovery of the wreckage of the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, comes as the world marks the 70th anniversary of the war's end.

Allen's publicity agency Edelman said in a statement Wednesday that Allen and his research team aboard his superyacht M/Y Octopus found the ship over the weekend, more than eight years after their search began.

 

:)

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At the time of the rumours in 2007 I was one of the mods on this forum's predecessor, and as such I was party to certain information which, at the time, I was duty bound not to pass on. Seeing as so much time has now passed, I guess it doesn't matter if I share what I know, although I won't name names.

 

One of my fellow mods at the time had a private meeting with a very well respected director of the club at the time, and was told by this person in no uncertain terms that the board had indeed met with people representing, or at least claiming to represent Paul Allen, and that there was a genuine, serious interest there.

 

Make of that what you will.

Edited by Sheaf Saint
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At the time of the rumours in 2007 I was one of the mods on this forum's predecessor, and as such I was party to certain information which, at the time, I was duty bound not to pass on. Seeing as so much time has now passed, I guess it doesn't matter if I share what I know, although I won't name names.

 

One of my fellow mods at the time had a private meeting with a very well respected director of the club at the time, and was told by this person in no uncertain terms that the board had indeed met with people representing, or at least claiming to represent Paul Allen, and that there was a genuine, serious interest there.

 

Make of that what you will.

I never stopped believing.

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At the time of the rumours in 2007 I was one of the mods on this forum's predecessor, and as such I was party to certain information which, at the time, I was duty bound not to pass on. Seeing as so much time has now passed, I guess it doesn't matter if I share what I know, although I won't name names.

 

One of my fellow mods at the time had a private meeting with a very well respected director of the club at the time, and was told by this person in no uncertain terms that the board had indeed met with people representing, or at least claiming to represent Paul Allen, and that there was a genuine, serious interest there.

 

Make of that what you will.

 

I think I know who you mean, he was a good guy but I felt in the end that he was sold a lot of rubbish and took it all a bit too seriously. I think I even thought there was something in it at some point, but when you had the likes of Saint David (Remember him???) and lifelongsaint posting, that started to raise big doubts for me.

 

And then we had the good old fun with the Pinnacle bid, where some familiar names raised their heads above the trenches again - and that takeover would have been a true disaster for us I reckon.

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At the time of the rumours in 2007 I was one of the mods on this forum's predecessor, and as such I was party to certain information which, at the time, I was duty bound not to pass on. Seeing as so much time has now passed, I guess it doesn't matter if I share what I know, although I won't name names.

 

One of my fellow mods at the time had a private meeting with a very well respected director of the club at the time, and was told by this person in no uncertain terms that the board had indeed met with people representing, or at least claiming to represent Paul Allen, and that there was a genuine, serious interest there.

 

Make of that what you will.

 

The "representative" was Tommac.... or so he led people to believe.... (?)

 

tommac2.jpg

tommac.jpg

Edited by trousers
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At the time of the rumours in 2007 I was one of the mods on this forum's predecessor, and as such I was party to certain information which, at the time, I was duty bound not to pass on. Seeing as so much time has now passed, I guess it doesn't matter if I share what I know, although I won't name names.

 

One of my fellow mods at the time had a private meeting with a very well respected director of the club at the time, and was told by this person in no uncertain terms that the board had indeed met with people representing, or at least claiming to represent Paul Allen, and that there was a genuine, serious interest there.

 

Make of that what you will.

Therein lies the rub.

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