DIC: takeover thread

[Glen C]

Ok i admit to getting bored ages ago and stopped following what's going on with DIC as i doubt its ever gonna happen. But can someone ask me this question. If DIC are so rich why are they always looking for outside investors? They're meant to be mega rich and everything. I just find it worrying that they feel they need help to buy the club.

[coop]

Originally Posted by lfc4eva99 Coop - Give us some good news mate...........

Rashids not online.

[StevieH]

Originally Posted by coop Rashids not online.

[coop]

Originally Posted by Glen C Ok i admit to getting bored ages ago and stopped following what's going on with DIC as i doubt its ever gonna happen. But can someone ask me this question. If DIC are so rich why are they always looking for outside investors? They're meant to be mega rich and everything. I just find it worrying that they feel they need help to buy the club.

DIC are an investment group hence the reason why they wont pay stupid money for us.

This is the reason why further up the food chain Dubai Holdings are hoping to buy us as this way they can take the longer term view of buying Liverpool and making money long term not short term.

[lfc4eva99]

Originally Posted by coop Rashids not online.

And some good news about the Takeover saga?

[Rashid]

Originally Posted by coop Rashids not online.

[coop]

Liverpool FC off-field season review: Admiration has turned into disbelief
May 17 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

SHORTLY after Liverpool won their last league title, a book was published called Foundations of Corporate Success which held the club up as an example for all businesses to follow.

Author John Kay, a management guru of international renown, argued that everything at Anfield, from boardroom to training ground, was so well ordered and structured that success was almost inevitable.

He wrote: "There are organisational routines – complex manoeuvres, perfected through repeated trial, in which each player fulfils without needing, or necessarily having, a picture of the whole."

In those dim and distant pre-Premier League days, football clubs usually did not warrant any sort of mention in the dispatches of economics experts, let alone receive fulsome praise from them.

But such was the well-oiled machine that Liverpool had been turned into that their operational routines, honed on decades of experience, were regarded as an example of the corporate ideal in such circles.

Fast forward to the present day and Liverpool FC is again the subject of much discussion by financial experts – only this time their verdict on the way the club has been run during the last season is nowhere near as complimentary.

And nor should it be. The structure which was once so solid has now crumbled to such an extent that at times it is hard to believe it is still standing.

If that sounds melodramatic then consider the following – the club is now owned by two Americans who are not on speaking terms and who may or may not have the resources to take it forward; one of the owners wants to remove the chief executive but is vetoed from doing so by his partner; and the team manager has learned that both owners and chief executive have been in talks with a potential replacement.

Off the field, Liverpool are a shambles and have become an object lesson in how a football club should not be run.

Owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have been found wanting and are continuing to let down those who have the best interests of the club at heart and who follow their team through thick and thin.

The much fabled "Liverpool Way" has been tossed aside with a wanton disregard for the club's image or its future and in its place is an all too public battle between two American millionaires who have been to only a handful of games between them.

In the early stages of last season there was little indication that civil war would later break out at Anfield.

Not much was seen of Hicks or Gillett and even their absenteeism failed to raise the ire of supporters who had welcomed them on the advice of outgoing chairman David Moores and chief executive Rick Parry the previous February.

Rafa Benitez was the first to alert the world to the problems behind the scenes during his now infamous "I am concentrating on coaching and training my team press conference" in November.

Having become increasingly frustrated at an apparent failure by Hicks and Gillett to act on his transfer demands, the Reds boss decided to go public with his concerns. Hicks duly slapped Benitez down and at that stage it looked likely that the Spaniard's tenure in the Anfield management seat would be coming to an abrupt end.

Those cracks were smoothed over at a summit meeting held in the wake of Liverpool's home defeat to Manchester United only for them to be reopened once more a month later when Hicks revealed to the ECHO that he had spoken to Jurgen Klinsmann about the possibility of replacing Benitez as Liverpool manager.

It was an incredible admission, one which the Texan no doubt now wishes he had never made and he has spent the last few months sidling up to Benitez by e-mail in a bid to show the manager he has his full support, although the more cynical among Liverpool's fan base suspect Hicks' charm offensive is nothing more than an attempt to coax the Reds boss into a marriage of convenience.

While all this was going on, Liverpool's form on the pitch stuttered as wins were turned into draws and the chances of a title challenge being mounted were all but wiped out.

The situation became so bad that in January Steven Gerrard spoke out about the unwanted distraction of dirty linen being washed in public after a disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Aston Villa.

If the only problems plaguing Anfield at that time were between owners and manager that would have been bad enough, but it soon became clear that Hicks and Gillett were not singing from the same hymn sheet either.

The exact moment when their relationship collapsed is difficult to pinpoint, although it undoubtedly predates Gillett's admission that he was no longer on speaking terms with his fellow American in late March.

What is not in doubt is that the duo can no longer stand the sight of one another, have not been at the same Liverpool game together since December and are now headed inexorably towards the divorce courts.

Where that leaves the club is anyone's guess. Venture capitalists Dubai International Capital remain keen to get their hands on an asset which, if handled correctly, would probably challenge Manchester United when it comes to revenue streams and profits.

But with Hicks continuing to show no signs that he is ready to sell out, even for a multi million pound profit, it could be that the spell of uncertainty could stretch into another season.

Should that happen it would be a disaster for the club, one which could conceivably cost them the services of a manager rated as one of the finest in Europe and add another layer to the laughing stock status it has assumed over the last nine months.

Benitez is happy at Anfield and he is continually at pains to make that clear. But how long can the manager be expected to have to put up with a situation in which he does not know who he can trust in the club's hierarchy for any length of time?

Similarly, it surely verges on the farcical when a manager of a leading club is having to get the go-ahead from two warring, rival factions before he can make a move in the transfer market.

From being one of the best run and well-oiled machines in sports and business, Liverpool have all but fallen apart in the last season.

The danger is, unless the rot is stopped, the corporate world will only look to the club as an example of how not to run a business in the years to come.

[coop]

Can i just say once again Tony is spot on with his comments and its great to see he isnt pussy footing around Hicks and Gillett.

[hamstrung]

Originally Posted by Kennys_spell *Adopts stage whisper Psssst - Stop reading then.

Pssssssssst


Bite me.

[Rashid]

'Hicks has been back in talks with DIC for the last few days at least'. - According to BBC Radio Five Live.

[hamstrung]

Interesting*













*Apathetic

[coop]

Both Hicks and Gillett have been in contact with Dubai Holdings over the last fortnight with obviously the latter been at the Spurs game.

[Carra_is_legend]

Interesting*

*boring too (no offence to Rash or Coop though)

[JohnnyH]

Originally Posted by coop Both Hicks and Gillett have been in contact with Dubai Holdings over the last fortnight with obviously the latter been at the Spurs game.

Do you know was Hicks telling them to back off Gillett or was he interested in doing business?

[SCOUSE TAPAS]

Originally Posted by Carra_is_legend Did he? Did he directly mention it? I'm not sure about that. I remember him mentioning that the Gillett family could not have been a better partner and that they gave Hicks enough time to match the offer and that ultimately Hicks couldn't cross the finish line. This was weeks ago and Gillett still hasn't sold his shares. Gillett also said in the same interview that Hicks only "threatened" to use his veto. Anyway, as hamstrung said, this is fucking boring now.

Just heard it again he mentions Hicks threatend to veto the DIC bid. He also says that he has been really fair to his partener because they gave him plenty of time to get the funds to buy him out,but he couldn't raise the funds to do so. So according to that he was past the period of time set for either partner to buyout the other. Or maybe he just offered them to him but didn't use the time allowed for either partner to buy the other out thing.