Apple (AAPL) is interested in British soccer giant Manchester United (MANU). Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is said to be challenging Microsoft’s ( MSFT ) planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ).
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Apple-Manchester United?
Apple could pay £5.8 billion ($7 billion) for Manchester United, the Daily Star reported. The Dow Jones tech titan has no experience owning a sports team, but CEO Tim Cook sees big opportunities in this deal.
Apple+ broadcasts Major League Soccer as well as Friday Night Baseball. His award-winning comedy Ted Lasso is about an American soccer coach who manages a Premier League soccer team.
The Glazers, bowing to fans, recently agreed to put the Premier League football giant up for sale. They initially set a selling price of £8.25 billion.
Shares of Apple rose 0.6% to 151.07 in trading on Wednesday after recovering from its 50-day moving average on Tuesday. Dow shares are still below their 200-day moving average.
Manchester United shares soared 26% to 18.80 on Wednesday, a 13-month high. This after rising almost 15% on Tuesday.
FTC Challenges Microsoft-Activision?
The Federal Trade Commission is likely to try to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard. That’s according to Politico, which says an antitrust lawsuit could come in December. The FTC’s investigation of the Microsoft-Activision deal is not yet complete.
Shares of ATVI fell 3.8% late Wednesday on the FTC report. Shares rose 0.9% to 76.59 in the regular session on Wednesday. Activision’s stock has been trading at a significant discount to its purchase price of $95 per share due to regulatory concerns.
Antitrust regulators in Europe and China are also reviewing Microsoft-Activision.
PlayStation maker Sony ( SONY ) has opposed the Microsoft-Activision deal, concerned that Activision’s best-sellers, such as Call of Duty, would become exclusive to Xbox.
Microsoft shares rose slightly in late Wednesday. The Dow closed up 1% at 247.58.
Follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
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