Irish tycoons grab Man Utd stake

Old Trafford, home of the English champions. Story Tools

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB has sold its entire stake in football club Manchester United to two Irish racehorse magnates.

Cubic Expressions, the bid vehicle owned by J.P. McManus and John Magnier, now owns 23.15 percent of one of the world's richest football clubs, Manchester United said Tuesday.

Manchester United's stock soared on speculation the English soccer champions could fall prey to a bid.

In midday trading in London, its stock rose 5.1 percent to 246 pence.

That valued the club at more than £600 million ($1 billion).

"They are definitely in play now," Stan Lock, a broker at private client stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, told Reuters.

BSkyB sold its 10 percent stake for about £62 million. Britain's biggest pay-TV company said it received 239 pence for each of the 25.9 million shares it owned.

The British government blocked BSkyB's £623 million bid for Manchester United in 1999, saying the deal was not in the public interest because it could reduce competition in the broadcasting of football matches.

"They're out clean at a good price. There was no use in them holding them apart from as an investment, and not long ago the shares were at 90p, so to get out at 239p is not bad," said Brewin Dolphin's Lock.

Speculation over the future of Manchester United has intensified since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought up rivals Chelsea.

Malcolm Glazer, owner of American Super Bowl Football champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had raised his stake in the English premier league club to 5.92 percent last week.

The billionaire behind reality TV show "Big Brother" John de Mol also owns a 3.5 percent stake.

"The Russians are still in the background, the American is still picking them up, and now it looks like the Irish picking them up. It could be a free-for-all," Lock said.

But England's most successful football club has insisted there have been no bid talks.

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