BBC:
Malcolm Glazer has announced that he now owns 97.3% of shares in Manchester United, but is still short of gaining complete control.
Mr Glazer has also extended the deadline for shareholders to sell remaining shares in Man United to his bid vehicle Red Football.
Shareholders now have until 1500 BST on 27 June as he closes in on complete control of the club.
Mr Glazer plans to delist the club's shares from the London Stock Market.
He previously had said he would extend his offer if he did not get at least 97.5% by the first deadline on Monday, 13 June.
The Telegraph:
Malcolm Glazer was last night taking his time to announce how many shares in Manchester United his family company, Red Football, controlled, confident that he had more 90 per cent, and probably over 97.5 per cent, which would mean that he could compulsorily purchase any remaining shares.
Nick Towle, the chairman of Shareholders United, the pressure group formed in 1998 to fight BSkyB's takeover of Manchester United, yesterday refused to accept that the fight had failed. "I'm not so sure it has," Towle said. "He certainly gets control of the company and will end up with more than 90 per cent, that is my guess. We will wait and see how far he gets, but there are things we can do by law to make life difficult for him and a lot of Manchester United fans want to do that."
However, now that Glazer is in total control of United with his three sons, Joel, Avram and Bryan, on the plc board, there are also signs that the fans opposed to him are changing some of their tactics, with older groups coming to the fore.
So far the fight against Glazer has been led by Shareholders United. Yet IMUSA, the independent shareholders group who are far older than Shareholders United and have a broader fan base, are now likely to be in the forefront of the battle.
Two weeks ago Andy Walsh, who successfully led the fight against the Rupert Murdoch BSkyB bid, presided over a meeting in Manchester where plans were laid for a new Manchester United club to be created like AFC Wimbledon and seek to gain League status through the non-League pyramid. They have received encouraging help from non-League football officials and helpful advice from AFC Wimbledon themselves.
Shareholders United promise to stay in the fight, setting up a Phoenix Fund which would take donations from the sale of shares and be available should Glazer, as they forecast, fail and the club need rescuing.
The Times:
Malcol Glazer has cemented his ownership of Manchester United after securing more than 90 per cent of the shares in the Barclays Premiership club. By the time the American billionaire’s offer to shareholders of 300p a share closed at 3pm yesterday, he had enough of the equity to start the process of forcing out minority shareholders.
No formal announcement was made to the London Stock Exchange, but it is understood that Red Football, Glazer’s bidding vehicle, will reveal its exact shareholding by the start of trading this morning. Glazer is known to have exceeded 90 per cent, at which point he would have to extend his offer for at least three months to the shareholders yet to sell out.
If he has secured more than 97.6 per cent, he has the right compulsorily to buy out those hanging on to their shares within six weeks. He may choose not to buy 100 per cent as this would increase the cost of the takeover to £831 million, while the residual shareholders would have no effective voting rights or real value in their shares.
However, Glazer may want to rid himself of the irritation of minority shareholders, who could be a thorn in his side and add to his legal bill. Fifty shareholders can apply to a court to block the special resolution taking the company private. Glazer has said that he intends to delist the club by June 22, or as soon as possible thereafter.