Toonpack

Soundlink II Battery lasts maybe 7/8 hours until it shows red (they say 8), really good volume and depth of sound, am well impressed. Connection range probably about 30-40ft ft (through walls) over that it'll break up. (it will charge up and play at the same time). Got it in the States same price in dollars as in pounds here = bargain. Adapter/transformer for the yankee plug £4.95 off Amazon, jobs a good un. Wish I could get a TV over there and bring it in, comparatively they are washers compared to here for a monster one.

One of these (highly recommended, cracking little piece of kit):

I think the best for us would be that he'd still be an NUFC player this season............... Oh wait a minute ............

DOH !! I never once said it was a mutual decision, it was a mutual clause and NUFC chose to excercise it as Virgin could have. The presence of the clause means both sides were happy that one or other could bail out after 12 months with no recriminations. It is no big deal.

That is hilarious, I mean what's clouded in mystery It's not highly unusual, it's bog standard, and Virgin are our sponsors for £10 Mill this year, next season someone else will be the sponsor the only mystery is who that will be. We don't need to know anything tbh. Why should the club tell us who the next sponsors are until they (and the sponsors) judge the time is right. I stand by the reasoning I put up before btw. But when MA is involved it pays to be paranoid

Of course I did (I posted it) “…. hoped that this would be a relationship that would flourish for years to come” Bog standard business speak nothing more nothing less . Oh aye, they’d hope it would continue for years and years, IF and only IF the outlay was achieving/beating the targets they set for it (that’s what the use of the word flourish means i.e. growth). End of. Do you think for a second if the first years £10 Mill had gained them nothing , they wouldn’t have exercised the mutual bail out clause, who’s to say they wouldn’t have anyway, they may not have done their sums yet ? It really is a simple absolutely run of the mill business decision.

If it was SD but they pay more than Virgin are is it a problem, serious question ??

I would suggest that an assumption that the next sponsor will be paying less than the mutualy terminated agreement is a much wilder (paranoid even) assumption than to assume they will be paying more or the same for longer. Surely ?? Give Ashley's track record with the finances of NUFC I have no concerns over how the clubs assets are being managed.

Seriously I am not being pedantic at all, even your post quoted above reeks of an impression that Virgin got shat on, they didn't, both parties wanted (otherwise it wouldn't have existed) the early get out of the deal after 12 months clause, one of the parties exercised it, it's really a nothing situation, it's business, it happens all the time and absolutely both parties are perfectly happy. Virgin are not disappointed/upset/miffed, other than announcing it, they'll have forgotten about it already except next years marketing budget has had a £10 mill boost (although I expect the budget will be trimmed accordingly and the £10 mill get "banked"). There is no-one in Virgin walking around muttering "the bastards!!!!". The deals done its job for Virgin anyway, local bank taken over by corporate giant(ish) but sponsors local football team, what thoroughly splendid chaps Mr Bransons crew are, job done. This is business, it is different, the is no emotional element, there is just the contracts and what they allow the contracted parties to do.

Can't account for paranoia tbh Inventing non existent sticks to beat them up with again IMO Even if it was SD and they are contracted to pay more than Virgin, what's wrong with that ? seriously ??

A Skunker with over 5500 posts doesn't seem to appreciate the gift this boards banning has presented that board with.

I've never worked in marketing, but the potential reasons I put forward for lack of immediate announcement are perfectly valid and plausible in business terms, there ain't no conspiracy.

It's not being ended prematurely, it is being ended at the contractualy agreed earliest point in the contract that either party could opt out, it is perfectly harmonious.

I reckon that’ll be down to the new sponsor, most likely (or Virgin possibly – they are still the sponsors for a while yet, won’t want anything detracting from that, they have/are still paying for it). If you think about it from the new sponsor perspective, would you want the announcement of your deal to happen 6 months in advance of it being able to bear any fruit (i.e. logo on shirt) and have another sponsor getting the exposure for those 6 months, so that when your logo is unveiled it’d be a sort of damp squib “oh look new shirt with the new picture on it”. Or would you want the speculation for a while and the big announcement in concert with when the logo can be displayed and it can do what you are paying for it to do.

They gave notice to Virgin that they were excercising the termination clause, Virgin first broke the news on their website (and from what I hear Virgin is from where the rumours started). Not so sure it was a plan. Can't see any issue with it either way personally, still a reasonably long time for the Virgin deal to run.

It would be if it was showcasing the potential for advertising via NUFC (wind up answer) They do in the UK and to a limited extent Europe, elsewhere nowt though.

Oh aye it is, if you have something to market in the markets, if you see what I mean.

It has to be wrong. There's "only" 7 Billion people on the planet, thick end of half of them live in China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan, I severely doubt 67% of the worlds population watch the EPL. More folks don't watch football (across all the leagues) even in this country than do.

Which is completely irrelevant outside of where SD has a presence, SD are not looking beyond Europe in terms of further expansion in the next 5 years, SD promotion in China/Singapore/USA, for example, is worthless: If SD has a TV add in the break in the Belgian version of Corrie bet it's seen by more Belgians than one of our games is. Stores International Retail TOTAL RETAIL SALES SPACE OF c. 778,000* SQ FT 118 Stores 44 Belgium 39 Ireland 14 Slovenia 04 Netherlands 04 Cyprus 10 Portugal 02 France 01 Luxemburg SD is the company name but that in the UK is known by most as it's retail arm brand, I'm surprised we're not the Everlast/Slazenger/Dunlop/No Fear Stadium at SJP because he owns those brands and they are global, you can buy Everlast and No Fear stuff in Sears (and Wallmart I think) in the US for example.

I bet there's no formal contractual deal in place between SD plc and NUFC, it will be an informal "can I use the logo"/"aye OK" now I accept that wouldn't normally happen as companies are incredibly precious about their logo's, and their use, but given who the owner of NUFC is all the normal "yes you can use it but caveat caveat caveat etc." won't likely have been necessary. I would guess their standard TV adverts reach more people than the SJP stuff.

First Bold bit: Not a chance, for many reasons. Firstly Ashleys reported management ethos is the promotion of dissent and confrontation being drivers to excellence. Secondly, at corporate governance level, it just doesn't happen, at lower or middle management oh aye, there's jobs for the boys. At Corporate level it's the best people for the job because as Chez mentioned if the institutional investors caught a whiff of Ashley driving the bus roughshod over everything (as he saw fit) they'd be less than happy which in turn would/could effect the share price and even a penny off SD share value would be a tidy sum taken away from his holding I reckon. This majority shareholding thing and it's day to day influence is way over blown, if he wanted to run things day to day he'd be CEO. Majority shareholders take a back seat their primary interest being comfort that the business is being run/grown properly (with them having to do as little as possible whilst that happens). They put in the 24/7 graft to bring the business into a position that being the majority share holder is worth bazzilions, once there, they just want it to run/grow smoothly so they can concentrate on the things they enjoy doing, when they want to do them - Likely the reason behind Ashleys directorship role, he patently likes doing the aquisition expansion stuff. He wants to see SD the biggest on the planet, read their annual report (easy to find via Google) and where they want to expand to. Second Bold bit: They don't have one to comment on.

I don’t know who could stop him, but I know what could stop him and that’s common sense. If there was a shortfall in NUFC revenue’s which in turn weakened the team which in turn meant they started making losses again Ashley personally would have to cover that gap out of his own pocket (as he has previously). To expose himself financially for the benefit of the corporate entity just doesn’t stack up. The sums we’d be talking about “diverting” from NUFC to SD are buttons to SD but a decent wedge to NUFC (i.e. exposure to Ashley’s pocket). Has anyone tracked if any SD signage has been replaced (or not) by other sponsors anywhere ?? We don’t know if he’s using area’s that could have been sold elsewhere for SD marketting, or rather, turning down offers to advertise in deference to SD. Significantly there is only one entity, the detrimental effect or exposure bestowed on the “other” is Ashley’s own pocket. Nope NUFC are simply exercising the contractual clause that allowed either party to terminate after 12 months, Virgin announced that they’d been given notice, of said termination, before NUFC did. This was simply the exercising of an agreed contractual clause ending the deal at the earliest time it was agreed it could be terminated. Technically it’s not really as emotive as “ending the deal early” or premature.

Aye, but you don't see Russian Mafia shops (alledgedly) on the highstreet.

No "he" doesn't SD also have a world exclusive relationship with Nike and a purpose built "Nike Academy" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/life-with-mike-ashley-6264661.html

Take your pick