News of a proposed American takeover of Everton has now hit the mainstream. We take a look at the two gentlemen who are heading the consortium that is said to be studying the books with an eye to buying the club as soon as January 2016.

This same group had started talks with Swansea City last season, but nothing came out of the discussions and the pair are said to be targeting Everton now, with the sum of being bandied about. When the group were looking at the Swans, Wales Online reporter Chris Wathan had dug deeper to see what he could find out about these two gentlemen.

JOHN JAY MOORES Having been a computer specialist for Shell Oil, Moores helped found BMC Software in 1980, a company that went from humble beginnings to becoming one of the largest software firms in the States. Going public eight years after its launch, Moores had helped turn a £1,000 original investment into a company making $200m sales within ten years. Born in Texas 1944, he headed into venture capitalism including the founding of JMI Equity in 1992 - an investment firm specialising in software. Two years later he bought 80% of Major League Baseball franchise San Diego Padres for $80m - incidentally from current Liverpool chairman Tom Werner - and was credited with investing to hire star names and boosting attendance. Moores said at the time: "My goal is to stabilise the club financially so that it can be competitive on the field and accepted in the community. We're here for the long haul, and it helps that we're using my money and not someone else's." He eventually sold up two years ago for $800m having won four regional titles and one National League championship and overseen their move to a new stadium.Moores invested in software company Peregrine Systems in 1989 and made $630m from the later selling of shares. He has donated much of his earnings to others, a $51m contribution to the University of Houston in 1991 one of the largest in US history to a public university, establishing a cancer centre at San Diego Univsersity are among various payments to good causes. Owning farms in Kentucky and Maryland, he set-up racing stable Merreibelle with long-time business partner Charles Noell and bought all of the stock previously owned by Irish-based Kilfrush Stud last year, promptly selling broadmare Immortal Verse for a European record $8.1m. A personal friend of former US President Jimmy Carter, ten years ago Moores was recorded as among the richest 400 people in America, Forbes estimating his value at $730m; his wealth is believed to have grown since.