When Malcolm Glazer started buying stock in the famed British soccer club Manchester United earlier this year, some saw it as a sop to owner Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Since then, Glazer's bid to buy the Dodgers seems to have gone moribund. So why is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner continuing to increase his stake in Manchester United, which some call the world's most valuable sports franchise?
Some British newspapers suspect he's serious about buying the team.
Team executives "assume his medium-term ambition is a full takeover," London's Guardian wrote last week. The paper went on to report that Glazer recently increased his shareholdings in the soccer club from 5.9 percent to 7.4 percent.
At least one paper wasn't happy about the prospect of a Glazer buyout. The Manchester Evening News speculated Oct. 4 that Glazer was buying Manchester shares only to sell them again for a quick profit. "Put the factors together, and you have a fair old conspiracy theory."
The paper admitted it had "no hard facts." But that didn't stop it from passing judgment on Glazer, whose other investments include a controlling interest in Omega Protein Corp., a Houston maker of fish feed for farm animals.
"The Florida-based billionaire made a fortune catching and processing a foul-smelling, parasite-ridden fish known as the menhaden," the News wrote, "scooped in large numbers by boats operating off America's Atlantic coast."
