Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Rupert Murdoch Bid To See End Of Liverpool Owner Tom Hicks’ Sports Involvement

Tom Hicks, the co-owner of English soccer club Liverpool and owner of Major League Baseball franchise the Texas Rangers, is expected to sell both clubs in the coming weeks, with a host of bidders interested in both.

Chinese businessman Kenny Huang, who recently purchased a stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise, is the frontrunner to take over at Liverpool, but faces stiff competition, with Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton confirming the club has multiple suitors. Meanwhile, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media giant - and the main source of revenue for the English Premier League as it has grown into the most popular domestic soccer league in the world - is believed to be preparing a bid for the Texas Rangers.

The baseball franchise filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May in an effort to remove itself from claims from creditors against Hicks Sports Group, Tom Hicks' sports company. At the time Hicks, who arrived at Liverpool in 2007 along with compatriot George Gillett, told the Dallas Morning News that owning a sports team opened a businessman to a "brutal invasion of privacy," adding: "It's never been my primary business, and it's a business I no longer want to be involved in."

Hicks also noted that he expects to lose "a couple of hundred" million on the Texas Rangers, but to make it back on Liverpool's sale.

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