HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — St. Pauli supporters have raised over 27 million euros (29.1 million) for a majority stake in the club's stadium after taking part in German soccer's first fan cooperative.
The Hamburg-based club said Tuesday more than 21,000 people joined the fundraising cooperative after its near five-month subscription period ended at a minute to midnight the night before.
St. Pauli said there had been a “huge rush” of people buying shares to be part-owners of the Millerntor Stadium in the final hours.
They each spent 850 euros ($917) for each share they bought, with 100 euros ($108) of that going on fees and contributions. Each purchase entered the buyer in a draw for prizes including a dinner with team captain Jackson Irvine, VIP packages, signed jerseys and more.
Bayern Munich powerbroker Uli Hoeness, who organized a benefit game for St. Pauli in 2003 when the club was in financial difficulty, was among the new stakeholders buying shares.
“The cooperative will open up new possibilities for FC St. Pauli,” commercial director Wilken Engelbracht said. ”By acquiring a majority stake in the stadium, the club will be able to reduce its financial liabilities much quicker than planned.”
The cooperative’s board of directors still has to process outstanding orders and review the figures before acquiring the majority stake in the stadium. The final results of the subscription phase and the next steps are to be presented to members in May, with the cooperative’s first general meeting scheduled for June.
St. Pauli was promoted back to the Bundesliga as second-division champion last season. The team is currently three points clear of the relegation zone with seven rounds remaining.
“We now want to use the momentum from the subscription phase to achieve our next big goal, and to achieve Bundesliga survival,” club president Oke Göttlich said.
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St. Pauli fans celebrate their team's victory following a Bundesliga soccer match against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Hamburg, Germany. (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP)
Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up to a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft's AI ambitions.
“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military," Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. "Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk, which was livestreamed from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft's founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” Suleyman said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.
A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.
Aboussad was invited on Monday to a video call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being terminated immediately. Agrawal was notified over email, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.
An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action. Aboussad told the AP she lost access to her work accounts shortly after the protest and had not been able to log back in.
Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests surrounding a contract that the technology company has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California were targeting a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.
The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.
CORRECTS DATE - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Ibtihal Aboussad, is escorted away by security as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)
