The financial sector has heard of shareholder action groups before, and the football world has plenty of experience of troublesome supporters' factions, but BSkyB's controversial £624 million sterling (£693 million) takeover bid for Manchester United has produced a unique blend of the two.
Shareholders United Against Murdoch is the product of this unusual marriage of the pinstripe and the bobble hat, and since the satellite broadcaster unveiled its agreed bid in early September the group has been making a thorough nuisance of itself. The football club was forced to issue a statement to the Stock Exchange last week, responding to an analysis of the takeover deal that SUAM sent out to United's institutional shareholders as part of its campaign to block the bid.
The people behind SUAM are a striking roll-call of the City, media world and academia. Its founders include Michael Crick, a respected author and reporter on Newsnight, the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, Richard Hytner, head of the Publics advertising group and former chief executive of the Henley Centre for Forecasting, and Jonathan Michie, Professor of Management at the University of London.
United by their love for a club they have followed since their youth, and backed by funding from an anonymous wealthy fan, SUAM's members have taken the battle to BSkyB and the club's board.
A sophisticated media campaign has been conducted, all 30,000 of the club's shareholders have been contacted and lobbied, and City institutions approached for their support. With people like Andrew Salton, a City fund manager, on board, SUAM is in the position to communicate with institutional shareholders in their own language.
He says he joined SUAM for financial as well as personal reasons. "I bought the shares as an investment and I think they'll do extremely well in the next five years. In the offer document they make a good case for how successful United has been and how rosy the prospects are - it is just not the sort of case usually made by a board that has agreed to sell out. I find it hard to understand why they should [accept the bid]."
SUAM has also consulted the Takeover Panel about the group's contention that the offer document sent to United shareholders was misleading because it failed to tell shareholders they had the right to reject the offer. As Mr Crick says: "The bulk of United's individual shareholders have probably not got shares in anything else, and will not have come across offer documents before."
SUAM failed to convince the panel of its case, but the group continues to snipe at the BSkyB deal from its lair in west London. The recent document sent to institutional shareholders arguing the BSkyB bid undervalued United included the supportive views of two stockbroking firms and Alex Fynn, a football marketing expert.
Mr Crick says the City has been taken aback by SUAM's campaign. For example, when the group visited the Takeover Panel "they did seem to be surprised by how well we'd marshalled our arguments and the kind of people we were. Because we were normal football supporters they were expecting us to turn up in United scarves and hats".
One high-ranking City banker has observed SUAM at close quarters and admits he has seen nothing like it before. "It's unusual for shareholder action groups to develop in this way," he says. "Normally, it would develop through one or more institutions. These are individual investors who feel very strongly about the situation . . . and they are highly able people. I think they're doing a remarkable job. It puts the efforts of some highly-paid advisers in the shade."
Anne Simpson, director of Pirc, the shareholder advisory group, is not surprised the BSkyB bid for United has produced such a committed shareholder pressure group. "Football clubs are the original example of the stakeholder company. The supporters are stitched in as fans, shareholders and often members of local community."
She believes a takeover of Manchester United does not just raise issues about how much the bidder should pay but also about whether it is in the best interests of supporters and the wider community. "Fans are stakeholders and everyone from the DTI downwards is trying to think of the purpose of a corporation as broader than just creating shareholder value," says Ms Simpson.
Mr Crick believes SUAM, which is working closely with official United supporters groups, has a chance of blocking the bid. At the very least, he is confident of convincing enough shareholders to reject BSkyB's offer and ensure at least 10 per cent of the shares remain in ordinary supporters' hands.
That would force BSkyB to retain a listing for United shares and continue listening to the views of the shareholder-fans. "It would help preserve some independence for United," says Mr Crick. "It would mean we could carry on earning dividends and going to AGMs. It would not be great, but it would be something."
