What was once intended as a long-term relationship turned into just an interlude. It’s actually more common for top footballers to quickly turn their backs on a club, despite all the oaths of loyalty, when there’s a better offer somewhere else or they’re sitting on the substitutes’ bench for most of the season. But in the liaison between Manchester and Göppingen, the big, world-famous football club and the small Swabian software company Teamviewer, it was not the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo who announced his departure, but the jersey sponsor.
The partnership between Teamviewer and Manchester United has only been running for a year. The Swabian IT company has now surprisingly announced that it will let the contract expire in 2026 after the agreed five years. Teamviewer CEO Oliver Steil had always vehemently defended the deal. The partnership, which is expected to cost around 48 million euros per year, was never really well received by investors. It seemed somehow megalomaniacal: a relatively unknown brand as a logo on the jersey of a well-known football team.
That would have an enormous marketing effect for Teamviewer, Steil justified the millions spent. Because: “Football interests everyone”. And in the summer of 2021 he emphasized how great the sports sponsorship of his company, which includes the football club as well as the Mercedes Formula 1 team, is already paying off – but Steil also said that something like this of course had to be thought of in the long term . Apparently that’s no longer the case.
Investors have never been excited about the Manchester marketing deal
Analysts saw it differently back then. Because the huge marketing expenses reduce the profit. Teamviewer’s share price fell shortly after the sponsorship was announced and has not recovered since. Within a year and a half, the shares have lost almost 80 percent of their value. It is fitting that Manchester United has also lost its appeal. The “Red Devils” are still a world-renowned brand, which also has the most members in England behind it. In terms of sport, the city neighbors of City and the rival from Liverpool United have recently left behind.
At Teamviewer, on the other hand, business did not develop as well as the company had hoped for in early 2021. When the Manchester deal was concluded, annual growth of 20 percent was assumed, said outgoing CFO Stefan Gaiser in a conference call with analysts. But things went much worse. On Wednesday, Teamviewer announced that the turnover billed this year would only reach the lower end of the forecast of 630 to 650 million euros – that would be around 15 percent.
“We continue to have good demand, but everything is slower,” said company boss Oliver Steil. The decision-making processes dragged on: “You have to talk to more customers and knock on more doors. It’s about having more irons in the fire. But things look reasonable for the second half of the year.”