Group including Jeff Bezos buys minority stake in Liverpool FC, with option to become controlling owner

BREAKING: A group including Jeff Bezos buys a minority stake in Liverpool from Fenway Sports Group in a deal valued at about $7.1 billion, with an option to become the club's controlling owner within 12 months.

Jeff Bezos just bought into Liverpool Football Club, and it's not small.

A consortium called 1892 Holdings is taking roughly a third of the club from Fenway Sports Group, in a deal valued around 7.1 billion dollars. And here's the moment it went public.

The biggest slice, over a billion, comes through K5 Global, where Bezos is lead investor. Also in the room, Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder, and businessman Amit Bhatia, who ran Queens Park Rangers and now becomes Liverpool's vice chairman. Bezos himself doesn't even take a board seat, which tells you he's playing the long game with someone else driving.

And the long game is written into the contract. The group has an option to take majority control within twelve months at a valuation near 8 billion. CNBC values Liverpool at 6 billion. So Fenway isn't just selling a slice, they may have priced their own exit. Anfield could have a new landlord within a year.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cnbc.com