Nick Louth, MSN Money special correspondent, with some facts about Glazer to demonstrate what a swell chap he is:
Glazer even fought his five sisters through the courts over the contents of his mother Hannah’s will.
Glazer’s two sons, Avram and Joel, are leading the bid for Man Utd. There is no history of any interest in soccer among any of the family.
The Bush connection. Glazer owns a company, Zapata Corporation, that was started by the father of US president George W. Bush. While George H. W Bush began Zapata as an oil and gas outfit, Glazer sidetracked it into fish protein, Caribbean supermarkets and sausage skins.
Glazer was taken to court by tenants at one of the residential caravan parks that he owns in New York state after he started charging each household £2 a month per child and £3.50 per dog.
Before his interest turned to the world’s richest soccer club, Glazer tried to buy other glamorous firms. In 1989 he tried to buy the ultra-cool motorcycle company Harley-Davidson.
He also made an equally unsuccessful attempt to buy the company that makes Formica, the outdated 1950s-style table and worktop material in 1988.
Glazer’s first attempt at a takeover was in 1984 when he tried to buy the bankrupt US Conrail system. He offered $7.6bn, though he only actually had $100m of his own. Attempt to raise the difference eventually failed.
Many of Glazer’s attempts to buy companies seem to have failed. However, buying the company approached may not have been the objective. By raising the share prices of the companies he approaches, he has often been able to offload his shares at a profit. If his record is anything to go by, this is what he may do at Man Utd.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission, the powerful watchdog that oversees Wall Street, is probing allegations that Glazer’s family artificially boosted the market values of two family-controlled companies which may have been used as collateral for bid finance
Glazer goes for the jugular. When he offered to buy the Buccaneers, he promised the Tampa authorities he would go halves on a new stadium with them. After getting control, he backed out of the deal, and gave Tampa two years to build it themselves or he would move the team to a city that would. Tampa caved in, and city taxpayers are still paying a half cent sales tax to fund the stadium’s construction.
The Buccaneers travel 80 miles to a training ground because their existing Tampa training facilities, which Glazer has yet to renew despite promises, are infested with rats.