Jumbo-Visma End Takeover talks, convinced they no longer need Soudal-QuickStep

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Jumbo-Visma End Takeover talks, convinced they no longer need Soudal-QuickStep

The Jumbo-Visma hotel in Saronno, north of Milan, was very quiet on Friday afternoon, despite the news that the merger/acquisition with Soudal-Quickstep was suddenly turned off.

The cycling world was trying to understand the results and social media exploded, but the team chose not to make an official statement.

Cyclingnews saw a team mechanic working in the hotel parking lot, on a race bike ready for Il Lombardia on Saturday, but the riders had a final afternoon nap and mack

Cyclingnews understood that on Friday morning Jumbo-Visma riders and staff were told that the merger/acquisition had been discontinued. It's a good idea. Jumbo-Visma decided that a complex plan to integrate 2 teams was no longer the best option and wanted to end the constant reporting and speculation for the benefit of all the riders and staff involved, including those who risked losing their jobs at Soudal-QuickStep.

Jumbo-Visma may have missed adding Remco Evenepoel to the roster and lost Primoš Rogliš to Bora-Hansgrohe, but it seems confident that a new sponsor may have been secured and that other means could secure the team's future.

After nearly 2 weeks of reporting and leaks, merger/acquisition options had become a disruptive distraction. Currently, the team's management is focused on the big goal of finalizing the team's long-term future, so it can compete with the UAE team Emirates or Ineos Grenadiers.

The Soudal-QuickStep team initially declined to comment, but the Belgian team appears to exist as a world tour team until the end of 2025, with Patrick Lefevere and Czech billionaire Zdenek Bakala continuing to own the team and Soudal, QuickStep and Specialized remaining as key sponsors.

That means Lemco Evenepol will remain under contract with the team until the end of 2026 unless another team, such as Ineos Grenadiers and Israel・Premier Tech, agree to buy him from the contract and secure approval from the Belgian team and UCI. It also avoids the fallout and loss of rider and staff jobs that mergers and acquisitions would have caused.

The Soudal adhesives brand was ready to jump the ship as part of the merger/acquisition, but soon on Friday they said they are happy that it will not go ahead and they are signing a contract as title sponsor until 2027.

"Soudal-QuickStep has always been a plan A for us," Sporza quoted as Dirk Coorevits, CEO of Soudal, said.

"We are satisfied that everything remains the same. I want to win the Tour de France at Remco."

According to a Dutch website ad, the arrival of Amazon as a new sponsor of Jumbo-Visma will not happen, but other brands are ready to take steps in some way to cover the 2024 Jumbo-Visma budget.This is estimated to be close to 4000 million euros. The Jumbo supermarket chain has been providing support until the end of 2024, but is keen to end the sponsorship as soon as possible.

Dutch media reported last week that Amazon is ready to invest 1500 million euros as a co-sponsor. However, Escape Collective suggested that funding is only "media value," not through advertising and visibility, rather than 1,500 million euros in cash. The team has never revealed the possibility of Amazon's involvement beyond the creation of a new documentary, but the online giant now looks out of the picture.

AD reports that Pon Holdings BV, which owns the team's bike sponsor Cervélo, will be the team's main backer in 2024, while Norwegian business software and IT BU

Pon Holdings BV is a privately owned Dutch company that also owns Cannondale and other bike brands . It imports Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda in the Netherlands, and has dealers of luxury brands such as Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the United States. Pon Holdings BV claims that its annual revenue exceeds 100 billion euros. Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Frans Maassen told Nieuwsblad about the termination of the merger/acquisition plan, breaking Jumbo-Visma's silence, but perhaps expressing everyone's thoughts on this issue.

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