Tether’s dream of acquiring Juventus Football Club has failed! Exor's board of directors unanimously rejected: Centennial heritage trumps all financial temptations

Stablecoin giant Tether spent heavily to join the Juventus, a giant of the Serie A. It made an all-cash offer of 1.1 billion euros and promised to invest another 1 billion euros. However, it was flatly rejected by the controlling family Exor within one day: the Agnelli family said that century-old heritage trumps all temptations of money. This confrontation between cryptocurrency and traditional football dynasties has come to an end.
(Preliminary summary: Tether intends to acquire the Italian Juventus Football Club for 1.1 billion euros, which may become the largest sports merger and acquisition in the history of Web3)
(Background supplement: Bloomberg: Tether plans to raise US$20 billion and consider "stock tokenization", halting shareholder selling to protect the US$500 billion valuation)

Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuing company, announced in December On the 12th, it was publicly announced that it had made a binding all-cash acquisition offer to Exor, the Italian Agnelli family holding company, and planned to acquire approximately 65.4% of the shares of Juventus Football Club held by Exor at a price of 2.66 euros per share. This offer values Juventus as a whole at approximately 1.1 billion euros, a premium of approximately 21% compared to the closing price of 2.19 euros on the 12th. If the transaction is successful, Tether will initiate a mandatory comprehensive acquisition and buy the remaining outstanding shares at the same price, thereby gaining complete control of the club.

Tether emphasized that the acquisition funds will come entirely from the company’s own cash and no debt is required; after the transaction is completed, up to 1 billion euros will be invested in team operations, player recruitment and infrastructure construction. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has long claimed to be a loyal Juventus fan. He said that this move is not only a business investment, but also out of love for the club. He hopes to be promoted from the current second largest shareholder (holding about 11.5% of shares) to a controlling shareholder and lead the "old woman" back to the top.

Exor clearly rejected the acquisition

However, just one day later, on December 13, Exor issued an official announcement stating that its board of directors unanimously rejected the acquisition offer submitted by Tether. Exor reiterated its previous position in the statement: "It has no intention to sell any of its shares in Juventus to third parties, including but not limited to Tether, which is headquartered in El Salvador."

Exor emphasized that Juventus is a long-standing and successful club, and the Agnelli family and Exor have been stable and proud shareholders for more than a century. They remain fully committed to the club and support the new management team in executing a clear strategy to achieve excellent results on and off the field. Exor CEO John Elkann said more bluntly: "Juventus, our history and our value are not for sale."

Although Juventus has faced financial pressure in recent years, with continuous losses and the need for multiple capital injections, the Agnelli family is obviously unwilling to give up control of this Serie A hegemon. Tether’s acquisition dream fell through.