In a move that seems to have surprised many, American billionaire
Stanley Kroenke has acquired Arsenal Football Club after buying up 32% of the shares of Arsenal Holdings through his company Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE), this purchase brought his total shareholding to 62.89% thus triggering a mandatory offer to acquire the rest of the shares.
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| Stanley Kroenke |
Stanley Kroenke's rise to power at Arsenal is interesting and shows the value of tenacity. He bought his first shares on April 5, 2007 - 9.9% from ITV worth £65 million. On April 18, 2007 - Vice-chairman David Dein left the club citing "irreconcilable differences" with the board. On April 25, 2007 - Mr Kroenke increased his stake to 12.19%, which caused Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood to opine : "We don't need his money and don't need his sort. He knows sweet FA about our football."
Lol "his sort" ! Well, he who larfs last and all that.
In August 2007 the well-known Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and business associate Farhad Moshiri bought Dein's 14.65% share for approximately £75m. By September, their stake has increased to 23%.
In October 2007 the Arsenal board agreed a "lockdown" on shares until April 2009, which stated that board members can only sell to "permitted persons".
A year later in September 2008 Mr Kroenke was invited to join the Arsenal board, becoming a non-executive director. In December of the same year - Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and Richard Carr resigned from the board, after rows with the afore-mentioned Hill-Wood. Bracewell-Smith left the lockdown agreement, so her 15.9% holding became available. Between March and July 2009 Mr Kroenke increased his stake to over 20% after acquiring 5,000 shares from Danny Fiszman. In May, he bought the Carr family shares, thus increasing his shareholding to 28.3%, and in July he bought another 160 to reach 28.58%.
In March 2010 Mr Kroenke increased his stake again to 29.9%, just another 10 shares would mean he would have to make a full takeover offer. In March 2011 Mr Usmanov raised his holding to over 27%.
In April 2011 Mr Kroenke bought a further 32% of the shares - 16% from diamond dealer Danny Fiszman and 15.9% from Lady Bracewell-Smith.
And the rest will be history !
Mr Kroenke has said "We are excited about the opportunity to increase our involvement with and commitment to Arsenal. We intend to build on this rich heritage and take the club to new success. I am delighted that Peter Hill-Wood has agreed to support us by continuing as Chairman."
Mr Hill-Wood for his part stated "The board of directors and I consider it a key responsibility to protect the ethos and spirit of the club. Mr Kroenke, although relatively new to Arsenal, has shown himself to be a man who values and respects the history and traditions of this very special club that we cherish. We are confident that he will be a safe custodian of its future."
Well first he didn't want "that sort of person" now he is confident etc... blah blah blah - - ah well, such is life.
So who is Stanley Kroenke ?
That fount of all knowledge Wikipedia says -
Enos Stanley Kroenke was born on July 29, 1947 in Columbia, Missouri. He is an American entrepreneur. His wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, is the daughter of Bud Walton - the Wal-Mart cofounder and possibly the richest family in America. Mr Kroenke owns Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which includes the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, St. Louis Rams of the NFL and Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League.
He made his money in real estate - founding the Kroenke Group in 1983, a firm that has built numerous shopping centres and apartment buildings. Since marrying Ann Walton, he has been in the special position to develop many of the plazas near Wal-Mart stores. He is chairman of THF Realty, an independent real estate development.
And for our visitors from abroad -
Who or what is Arsenal Football Club ?
Arsenal is a professional English Premier League soccer club based in Norf Lahndon. It is one of the most successful clubs in English soccer, they 'ave won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups. They 'old the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the English top flight (division) and are the only side to 'ave completed a Premier League season unbeaten.
They was fahnded in 1886 in Woolwich (Souf Lahndon). In 1913, they moved norf across the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. In the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century they won two more Doubles (League and Cup) and reached the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final (that's a big deal - unfortunately they lost to some tricky foreigners).
They are the most successful club in Lahndon. Chelsea are recent nouveau riche upstarts so they don't count. And there is another team in North London but I can't remember their name.
In 1996 the board, in a surprise move, appointed French philosopher Arsene Wenger (Arsene is French for Arsenal) as Manager (Coach) of the soccer club who immediately insisted that all Arsenal players study the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, in particular his epic tome 'Being and Northingness' - this new regime caused ructions in the changing room with Tony Adams - the big scary captain - saying Sartre was a froggy plonkah and he preferred Wittgenstein's more rigorous Germanic approach, this caused Arsene to say "I cannot comment I av not seen what 'appened".
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| Arsene Wenger pondering life and looking the other way |
In July 2006 they moved into the Emirates Stadium saying goodbye to Highbury which weren't big enuf, now that they had to carry their books with them all the time.
Arsene Wenger is the club's longest serving manager despite his insistence on looking the other way at crucial times.
Arsenal play fine entertaining, not to say amusing, soccer but unfortunately seem to have forgotten that the purpose of running round the field with a ball is to put it in the back of the opponent's net. They enjoy passing the ball so much that they don't like to shoot, as according to the rules of the game that will bring a halt to proceedings while the ball is reset in the middle of the pitch.
This novel approach is akin to the existentialism which Arsene Wenger insists on using as his training manual where the aim is "not to be but to do". So Arsenal do a lot in a very artful Gallic way but since 2005 they have not been anything other than second.
This culminated in them losing a recent final in the last minute against a mediocre side from somewhere called the Black Country, when the goalkeeper and a defender argued about the meaning of life instead of picking up the ball.
A more pragmatic lad from the Black Country kicked the ball into the net and won the match, while the goalkeeper and the defender argued the finer points of Hegel's position on the value of umbrellas.
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| Hegel's Holiday by Rene Magritte (a famous Belgian) |
To be fair Arsenal woz robbed in a recent quarter final against yet more tricky foreigners, when Arsenal were still ahead, when the referee decided to send off the Arsenal striker for not paying attention for a quarter of a second. Thus again fixing the standards by which this game is to be refereed.
In a similar situation a few years back Chelsea were refused 4 clear penalties to ensure that Barcelona qualified for the final and not Chelsea, it was spooky, it was almost as if the referee was disregarding the rules of the game. I can't imagine why he would have wanted to do that.
But back to Mr Kroenke, in 2009 the Forbes Rich List had him ranked as no. 205 in the world with $3 billion - not big by billionaire's standards but probably big enough to buy a goalkeeper or two.
My prediction ?
Jose Mourinho to manage Arsenal in the next couple of years ! We know Jose loves Arsene and would enjoy building on his heritage, although he might take a more Iberic approach to all them books and use them to build a wall in front of the goal. :-)
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