Man Utd’s TeamViewer sponsorship deal branded ‘appalling judgement’

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 3 min read

Manchester United’s shirt sponsor TeamViewer have been called upon to stop its partnership with the club, which has been branded an act of “appalling judgement”.

Petrus Advisers, which has a 3% stake in the German IT company, has written to TeamViewer executives instructing them to pull the plug on deals with the Old Trafford side and also the Mercedes Formula 1 racing team.

In an article published by Bloomberg News, these deals are branded “a sign of hubris”.

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Petrus have indicated that they want a cap of $73 million put aside for sponsorships, with the Manchester United deal, which is in place until 2026, worth an estimated $57m per year alone. It is thought that only Manchester City, Barcelona, PSG and Real Madrid have larger sponsorship agreements in place.

Meanwhile, TeamViewer are also in the middle of a lavish sponsorship agreement with Mercedes Formula 1, which lasted five years.

Although the company, which is a remote software working business, has indicated that it will not continue its sponsorship of Manchester United beyond the terms of the initial contract, it is under pressure from Petrus to pull the plug on the deal quicker.

“We demand that you stop bleeding millions and rapidly disengage from this mess,” Petrus said in the letter, which was seen by Bloomberg. “We therefore demand that you enter professional exit discussions with a clear goal of a quick solution and that you do it immediately.”

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’When even Ronaldo cannot save you’

TeamViewer have struggled to compete with larger companies entering the market during the Covid-19 lockdowns across the world, and after shares in it initially soared during the pandemic, the company’s share price now is roughly only 20% what it was at its peak in June 2020.

Analysts from Kepler Cheuvreux summed the situation up in a note entitled ‘When even Ronaldo cannot save you’: “TeamViewer (and the market) is still searching for a new base after drastically scaling back its mid-term ambitions a year ago.”

And with Ronaldo having caused Man Utd a headache this week with his explosive Piers Morgan interview, it appears that TeamViewer’s sponsorship could be a looming problem for the Red Devils.