Why Tether Failed to Buy Juventus and What Should We Learn from It?
Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family and owner of Juventus for over a century, rejected an unsolicited all‑cash takeover proposal from Tether Investments on Dec. 13, blocking a €1.1 billion offer for its 65.4% stake in Juventus Football Club.
In this article, let’s try to analyze what happened and why the attempt failed.
What Tether had on the plate for Juventus
Tether had offered €2.66 per share for Exor’s holding, a 21% premium to Juventus’ 12 December close of €2.19 in Milan, according to the terms reported by Reuters and Exor’s advisers.
The proposal implied an equity valuation just over €1.0 billion, or roughly $1.17–$1.30 billion depending on FX at trade date. Exor’s rejection landed less than 24 hours after Tether went public with the bid. Juventus shares last traded near that pre‑bid level after an initial spike faded as the deal path closed.
Tether had framed the move as a long‑horizon play. In its proposal, summarised in market reports from Nasdaq and others, Tether said it intended to fund the deal entirely with its own capital and then launch a tender offer for the free float at the same €2.66 level.
On X, the circulating joke is that Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO and Italian native, has plotted the deal since day 1 because he’s a long-term club fan. It is worth noting that Tether already owns a minority stake in Juventus.
Some analysts believe the bid was a huge underevaluation, as Juventus has its own stadium and one of the largest fan bases in the EU. However, separate coverage citing Tether’s pitch deck noted a pledge to invest an additional €1 billion in Juventus over time for stadium, commercial, and sporting development, bringing the total deployed capital to €2.1 billion.
Why Exor declined the bid
In its official note, Exor repeated that it has “no intention of selling any of its shares in Juventus to a third party, including but not restricted to El Salvador‑based Tether.”
The holding company highlighted that Exor and the Agnelli family have backed Juventus for “over a century”. It framed the club as a core long‑term asset rather than a financial position. The timing comes three weeks after Juventus raised about €97.8 million through a rights issue to cut debt and recapitalise operations.
Juventus released a separate video message on its own channels in which Exor CEO John Elkann doubled down on the stance. “Juventus, our history and our values are not for sale,” Elkann stated in the video. He added that Juve has been in the family for 102 years and that four generations have carried it through both “tough times” and title runs.
Exor’s answer was blunt. No sale, to Tether or anyone. That position matches background briefings to Reuters in which sources close to the Agnelli camp stressed there is “no intention” of exiting Juventus, despite a decade of thin or negative net profit and a 27% share price slide this year before the offer surfaced.
For traders reading through the noise, the deal spread is gone. The more interesting line is what this signals about crypto capital trying to buy into old‑money franchises.
What we’ve learned from Tether’s reality check
Tether stress‑tested whether a $130 billion stablecoin issuer can deploy a billion‑euro premium check and pry loose a century‑old family asset, and failed instantly. That tells us two things.
First, legacy control shareholders in marquee sports brands still prioritize governance, heritage, and political optics over crypto liquidity, even when the premium hits 20% and a further €1 billion in capex is committed.
Second, as more token issuers stack cash from reserve income and seek real‑world yield, they will continue to probe regulated, high‑visibility assets. Regulators, rating desks, and equity holders now have a live template for how Europe’s family holding companies respond. Any future crypto‑to‑listed‑club approach will need more than a headline valuation bump. It will need a governance structure and reputational package that entrenched owners can defend to their own boards and domestic regulators.
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