under siege!

By: j | July 4th, 2008

Possibly one of the worst pieces of news a fan could hear but it has been leaked in countless publications that owner Mike Ashley’s representatives have met with the private American equity fund InterMedia Partners.

InterMedia Partners, which is now based out of New York, is formerly of Nashville Tennessee with Leo Hindery Jr as managing partner. InterMedia has a extensive history within cable television network particularly in sports programming. Mr. Hindery was additionally the senior economic adviser to former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. The Board of Directors of InterMedia is a “who’s who” of broadcasting, including Bridget Baker, NBC Universal President/Chairman, Ted S. Rogers, Rogers Communications, Inc. President & CEO and George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN & ABC Sports. Please note ESPN has stated publicly it intends to bid heavily on Premier League broadcasting rights in the immediate future and this is obviously part of the firms “insider” information on making the offer.

As you wretch at the thought of our team, like too many others, being bought up by a foreign company looking to hedge their investment options, apparently InterMedia Partners has offered £420 m. Mike Ashley purchased the club last summer for £134.4m and is said to have dished out roughly £100m already to shore up the team but has stressed a need for a more stringent financial guidelines to ensure the clubs success.

Please let me hear your thoughts on this as I’m getting a bit riled about all of this.