Source: FOOTYMAD
American tycoon at centre of Liverpool takeover talks revealed
John Muse, the American private equity tycoon, is to play a leading role in an offer to buy a 40 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club. From Sky News: Muse has been lined up to co-invest alongside Rhone Capital, a US investment firm which last week tabled the first formal proposal to inject new funds into the Premier League club. Muse was one of the founders of Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, the buyout firm where Tom Hicks, one of Liverpool's current co-owners, also made his name and fortune. Hicks and Muse are said by people who know them to have had an at times uneasy relationship, although it seems logical to assume that they are on decent terms now. After all, Hicks and George Gillett, the current shareholders, will continue to collectively own a majority of the equity in the club even if the terms of Rhone's bid would hand it effective control. Christian Purslow, the highly-regarded managing director of Liverpool, has set an Easter deadline for serious offers. There has been plenty of speculative interest from around the world but I'd be surprised if there were more than three concrete proposals for Purslow to consider at that stage.
