A consortium — a group of investors pooling their money to buy something together — including Jeff Bezos, is reportedly closing in on a deal toacquire a roughly one-third stake in Liverpool Football Club, the2024/25 Premier League champions.
Even under the proposed deal, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the American company that has owned Liverpool since 2010, would retain control of the Premier League club.
The investment group is led by British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia and includes Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, with Bezos also among the investors.
The reported price is around1.58 billion euros (US$1.82 billion) for a 30% stake, valuing the entire club atroughly 4.5 billion pounds (US$6 billion). That represents a significant increase from the 300 million pounds (US$405 million) FSG paid for Liverpool in 2010.
Because the deal involves a minority stake — meaning less than half of the club — FSG would remain in control and continue to make the key decisions.
But what has received less attention is the academic background of the people involved. Between them, the three named investors hold degrees from Cornell University, Harvard University and Princeton University. The man they would be buying the stake from, John W. Henry, never completed a university degree.
Let’s take a deep dive into some of the top questions that people are asking about on this topic.
Amit Bhatia has stepped down from the QPR board, as the consortium he leads pursues a minority stake in Liverpool. Source: QPR FC/Facebook
Who is Amit Bhatia?
Amit Bhatia is a 46-year-old British-Indian businessman leading the investment group pursuing the minority stake in Liverpool. He is married to Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, daughter of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, whosenet worth is around US$34 billion.
Bhatia currently manages Swordfish Investments, a multi-asset investment firm, and is non-executive chairman of building materials company Breedon Group.
His football credentials come from Queens Park Rangers, a Championship club, where he spent 18 seasons as a director, co-owner and former chairman before stepping down from the board and transferring his stake to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam.
What is Amit Bhatia’s educational background?
Bhatiagraduated from Cornell University in 2001 with a degree in economics and investment management. Hisschooling before that moved between two countries — Columba’s School in Delhi until 1995, then Dulwich College in London, then the British School in Delhi in 1997.
He went into banking straight out of Cornell, working at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley in the US, spending a few months on charitable work in Ecuador, then joining Credit Suisse First Boston in London.
He started his own fund at 24, backed by his brother-in-law, Aditya, and his father-in-law, after pitching them on opportunities. He hasstayed close to Cornell since then, serving on its External Advisory Council for Internationalisation and guest lecturing MBA students at the Johnson School.
Now a venture capitalist, Eduardo Saverin continues to derive the bulk of his wealth from his small but highly valuable stake in Meta. Source: Wikimedia Commons
What did Eduardo Saverin study in college?
Saverinstudied economics at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 2006. Born in São Paulo, he moved to the US at thirteen and attended Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami before Harvard. He was president of the Harvard Investment Association and lived in Eliot House during his time there.
As an undergraduate, he reportedlymade US$300,000 investing in oil futures after predicting hurricane patterns. He met Mark Zuckerberg as a student and became Facebook’s first investor, later suing him over the dilution of his stake. The Harvard BA remains his only degree.
Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021 to become executive chairman and currently owns an 8% stake in the company. Source: Wikimedia Commons
What did Jeff Bezos study?
Jeff Bezos studied electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, graduating in 1986. But he did not start out in engineering. He initially enrolled as a physics major, drawn by his interest in space travel,but after struggling with a partial differential equation and seeing that some of his classmates had a natural aptitude for physics, he did not; he switched fields.
At Princeton, Bezos led the university’s chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honour society. He graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduating, Bezosreceived job offers from Intel and Bell Labs but chose to join FITEL, a New York-based start-up. His background in engineering and computer science would later prove valuable when he founded Amazon, where he wrote some of the company’s initial code himself.
The Harvard University Department of Economics was established in 1897 as part of the Division of History, Government, and Economics, which was also created that year. Source: Harvard University/Facebook
Which economics degree is better for finance — Cornell or Harvard?
There is no single winner. Each university offers a different route into finance, depending on the kind of career and market you want to enter.
Harvard Universityranks first globally for Economics and Econometrics in the QS 2026 subject rankings, earning perfect scores for both academic and employer reputation. It was also the route taken by Eduardo Saverin.
Cornell University, ranked 16th globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026, offered Amit Bhatia a more specialised combination of economics and investment management. That vocational focus led him to investment banking roles at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
So, Harvard offers prestige and broad academic strength while Cornell combines economics with practical finance training. The better choice ultimately depends on where you want your finance career to take you.
