Manchester United have confirmed US sports baron Malcolm Glazer has bought the 4.5% stake announced on Friday.
United's success has attracted several potential buyers
The owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now owns a 14.31% chunk of Britain's richest soccer club.
The deal has reignited talk that Mr Glazer is considering a takeover, with United's shares at a three-year high.
But Manchester United's chief
executive David Gill said on Monday there had been no takeover approach for the English premier league champions.
He has reportedly held talks with Manchester United's chief executive David Gill in the US, but the club says it is "business as usual".
His holding is still lower than that of Irish tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier, who hold a 23.15% stake.
They have also been linked with a possible takeover offer.
Dutch TV entrepreneur John de Mol, another shareholder in the club, has also been mentioned as a possible suitor.
Speculation about a possible takeover bid for Manchester United has followed the club for months.
Following the announcement United shares rose 2 pence, or 0.76%, to 265 pence.
United's shares have risen by 150% in the last year as the takeover talk has increased.
On Friday they hit a three-year high when news of a major acquisition of shares by the German Commerzbank was revealed.
The London head of Commerzbank, Mehmet Dalman, was revealed as the man behind the move but today it has emerged that those shares have now been passed on to
Mr Glazer shot to fame in the United States when he spent
$192m in 1995 for the struggling US football Tampa Bay
He funded a new $200m stadium and helped drag the
team out of the doldrums, culminating in this year's Super Bowl victory.
His family made its money from the oil and gas
industries, is listed as the 244th richest American by Forbes
magazine, worth an estimated one billion dollars.
He was recently tipped to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, but the deal fell through.