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Alinghi up for sale?

Posted 9 months, 23 days ago

Alinghi up for sale?
I have it from an absolutely impeccable source that Ernesto Bertarelli is on the brink of selling the Alinghi team lock, stock and two smoking barrels to a potential consortium of Dan Meyer (of 'Numbers' fame) and John Risley (the 2003 Director and Trustee of Team New Zealand). If this deal goes ahead then it would thrust Brad Butterworth into the head honcho role with Grant Simmer up there in the hierachy. Remember that Alinghi is now a seriously leaky communications ship and I have heard from another source that during the Key West regatta there were some seriously high-level meetings going on between Ernesto and his potential suitors. So why would Ernesto be selling out? Well the most likely answer is that he's bitten off way more than he can chew by taking on the vociferous Larry Ellison who has had every base covered in terms of PR and communication as well as completely out-smarting the clumsy-footed legal teams of Alinghi. There's also been the consistent rumour that Ernesto has long been looking for a way out of the Cup and an exit strategy that makes him look good. Just imagine if the court case goes against him and then he loses the DoG match...he'd look like a loser. So if he sells out now, then it can be Simmer and Butterworth that take the can on the chin like the professional sailors that they are and Ernie doesn't lose face. There's also the huge rumour in the financial world that Ernesto hasn't actually got as much cash as he is portrayed to have and that a lot of the money from the Serono sale is held in trust for the Bertarelli family far away from his grubby mits. So with the global credit crunch, UBS posting huge write-downs and Louis Vuitton already parachuted out of the nose-diving AC plane (how smart were they?) it's going to cost Ernesto a lot of valuable cash to stage the next Cup - possibly cash that he and his family just don't want to spend. By bringing in Dan Meyer and/or John Risley we might finally get some 'sense' back into the Cup and perhaps a little less ego...  Full Story »

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