Latest news with #RedBird
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
RedBird Strikes Deal to Acquire U.K.'s Telegraph Media Group, Vows to Invest in Digital, Journalists
U.S. private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners said Friday that it has reached an in-principle agreement to acquire The Telegraph Media Group at a total enterprise valuation of £500 million ($673 million) to become the U.K. media company's sole controlling owner. 'It is the largest investment in U.K. print media in a decade and unlocks a new era of growth for the 170-year-old title,' the companies said. The ownership of the conservative newspaper and its related offerings has been in question after the Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI agreed to buy The Telegraph and the Spectator magazine in 2023, with the U.K. government then cracking down on foreign state investment in British newspapers, forcing a sale. More from The Hollywood Reporter Vicky Krieps, Christian Friedel Join 'The Idiots' German Director Christian Petzold Named President of Austria's Viennale Prince William Launches 'Guardians' Docuseries on Rangers on BBC Earth Digital Platforms The Telegraph wrote that RedBird Capital, which provided part of RedBird IMI's funding for the original deal, was expected to be joined in the new ownership consortium by British media investors. 'RedBird is in discussions with select U.K.-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of The Telegraph,' the deal announcement noted. Abu Dhabi's International Media Investments (IMI) 'will also participate in the acquisition as a minority investor, subject to the passage of secondary legislation regarding foreign ownership thresholds,' it highlighted. RedBird said its growth strategy includes 'capital investment in the group's digital operations to continue driving subscriptions, using best-in-class data analytics and artificial intelligence tools to expand the value proposition to its core subscriber base and potential new subscribers.' RedBird also said it has 'ambitious growth plans that focus on investing in top journalistic talent, from award-winning reporters to opinion-leading commentators.' A key part of RedBird's strategy is expanding The Telegraph's global reach, particularly in the United States, 'leveraging the title's iconic brand and authoritative reporting to drive new audiences seeking world-class independent journalism. Collaboration across RedBird's portfolio will create unique partnership opportunities, blending tradition with innovation to expand The Telegraph's position as a global leader in quality journalism.' RedBird also said it would 'build on the strong financial foundations established by the current management team' and work with it to grow the brand internationally, with a focus on the U.S. where RedBird has a strong strategic presence across news, media and sports. 'Together, RedBird and TMG senior leadership will work to develop new content verticals in areas such as travel and events to maximize the commercial opportunities from a growing international and mass affluent subscriber base,' the companies said. With this latest transaction, RedBird said it 'has emerged as one of the largest investors in U.K. media, sports and entertainment, with a portfolio including Premier League Champion Liverpool FC; All3Media, the U.K.'s largest independent television, film and digital production and distribution company; Fulwell Entertainment, one of the U.K.'s leading television, film and music production companies; Build a Rocket Boy, one of the U.K.'s largest independent video gaming and entertainment studios; and the pending acquisition of the U.K.'s Channel 5 as a result of Skydance Entertainment's merger with Paramount Global.'Said Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird: 'This transaction marks the start of a new era for The Telegraph as we look to grow the brand in the U.K. and internationally, invest in its technology, and expand its subscriber base. We believe that the U.K. is a great place to invest, and this acquisition is an important part of RedBird's growing portfolio of media and entertainment companies in the U.K.' Added Anna Jones, CEO of Telegraph Media Group: 'Telegraph Media Group is an award-winning news media organization, with exceptional journalism at its heart, supported by leading commercial expertise, a commitment to innovation and a laser focus on data to drive strategy.' She added that RedBird Capital Partners has 'exciting growth plans that build on our success – and will unlock our full potential across the breadth of our business.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire Sign in to access your portfolio
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Milan sack Sergio Conceicao after just five months in charge
Milan have sacked head coach Sergio Conceicao, just five months after he was appointed. The 50-year-old was appointed in December to replace Paulo Fonseca, who himself had only six months in charge of the team. Milan lost the Coppa Italia final to Bologna earlier this month and despite winning the Supercoppa Italiana earlier in the campaign, finished a disappointing seventh-place in Serie A and missed out on European qualification for 2025-26. We would like to thank Sérgio Conceição and his staff for their commitment, professionalism and dedication shown during their time leading the First Team over the past few months. — AC Milan (@acmilan) May 29, 2025 Meanwhile, Milan have been linked with former striker Igli Tare as the club's new sporting director — a role the Albanian previously held at Lazio. Former Porto head coach Conceicao had a bright start to life in Milan, guiding his side to a 3-2 victory over rivals Inter in the Supercoppa in January however, the following month, they were eliminated from the Champions League at the play-off stage by Feyenoord. Advertisement Milan parted ways with Scudetto-winning head coach Stefano Piolo in the summer of 2024 and then sacked Fonseca in December of that year. Milan last won the Serie A title in 2021-22, their first Scudetto in 11 seasons, prior to RedBird's takeover later in 2022 with this year's Supercoppa their only trophy in three seasons. Milan ultras staged a remarkable protest against the club's ownership ahead of their final Serie A match of the season against Monza. Protests were held ahead of the game outside the club's Casa Milan headquarters, where around 5,000 ultras gathered before marching to the club's San Siro stadium. There were nostalgic chants for the club's iconic former captain Paolo Maldini, who made a record 902 appearances for Milan and who was sacked from his directorial role by the current ownership, and for the late Italian prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, the club's most successful owner. Milan ultras lined-up ahead of Saturday's match to spell out the message 'Go Home' in the Curva Sud, with chants demanding RedBird Capital's Gerry Cardinale sell his stake in the club and leave. (PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘British bid' to gatecrash Telegraph takeover is rejected
An 11th-hour attempt to gatecrash the sale of The Telegraph with a 'British bid' has been rejected. The latest approach from Dovid Efune, which includes funding from the hedge fund manager Jeremy Hosking, has been ruled out, according to multiple sources. It valued the Telegraph at £550m but had only £170m of committed equity and required a level of borrowing that lenders would be unlikely to support, sources said. Mr Efune, the publisher of The New York Sun, has said he expects to reveal more backers soon as he seeks a 'beneficial resolution for all stakeholders'. He added that he had received no communication from the seller rejecting his bid. He has been pursuing control of The Telegraph for a year. He emerged from an auction in October as the preferred bidder but subsequently struggled to raise finance. In a development that creates more potential obstacles for Mr Efune, the firm appointed by IMI to run the auction, Robey Warshaw, has stopped work on it. Sources said the investment bankers expect the rival bid by RedBird Capital to proceed. The US private equity firm has reached an agreement in principle to acquire majority ownership of The Telegraph from IMI, the United Arab Emirates state media company. The deal values the company at £500m. Together, as the joint venture RedBird IMI, the pair were blocked from taking full control last year following an outcry over press freedom. It would have handed the UAE a 75pc stake. Mr Efune said he is undeterred by the latest action. He told The Telegraph: 'Our British bid is strong with upward momentum. 'We expect to announce new funding partners in the near future. We're more confident than ever that what we have to offer is a favourable pathway for the sellers, The Telegraph and journalism writ large.' The British-born entrepreneur acquired The New York Sun in 2021 after running The Algemeiner, a newspaper for the Hasidic Jewish community. He is casting his bid for The Telegraph alongside Mr Hosking and Nadhim Zahawi, the former Conservative cabinet minister, as the 'British bid' in contrast to RedBird's American roots. However, Gerry Cardinale, RedBird's founder, is in talks with at least three potential British minority co-investors, including Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail. Following proposed changes to the law banning foreign state ownership of newspapers, IMI is expected to retain a passive stake in The Telegraph of up to 15pc. Mr Efune's chances of disrupting the transaction have appeared to be fading. This week on his X account, he appeared to seek divine intervention by posting 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord', a quote from Exodus typically interpreted as an appeal to trust in God. The bid's remaining earthly hopes may rest on Mr Efune's efforts to stoke political opposition to RedBird and to Labour's proposed legal changes. His consortium appears further to the Right and more ideological than RedBird's, and has been seeking to exploit a Conservative split over the laws on foreign state ownership of newspapers. Tory leaders have said they will not oppose a 15pc limit but some of the party's peers intend to support a Liberal Democrat 'fatal motion' in the House of Lords. It is unclear how such opposition would deliver The Telegraph to Mr Efune's 'British bid'. Mr Cardinale has told senior managers at the newspaper that he is anxious to complete his takeover as soon as possible to end two years of ownership uncertainty and launch an ambitious growth and investment strategy. Once a deal emerges, a smooth regulatory process could mean The Telegraph is under RedBird's control by September. It would join a portfolio of media and sport assets that includes AC Milan, a significant stake in Liverpool FC and a film studio co-founded with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. RedBird is also backing the planned $12bn (£8.9bn) takeover of the Hollywood giant Paramount, the owner of CBS in the United States and Channel 5 in Britain. If the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy refers The Telegraph deal to the Competition and Markets Authority for a full investigation of competition and plurality concerns, the timeline would be extended by several months. She could also impose legal restrictions on Mr Cardinale's ability to work with Telegraph management in the meantime. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Sport: Why one prominent investor thinks team valuations are way too high
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. It took nine months, but I finally found a high-profile investor who says professional sports team valuations are too high. This week's "On The Record" guest is Gerry Cardinale , the founder of RedBird Capital Partners. RedBird is a private equity firm that focuses on media and sports investments. RedBird has been the controlling owner of AC Milan, the Italian professional football (soccer) club, since 2022. It's also an investor in Skydance Media and one of the driving forces behind Skydance's still-pending merger with Paramount Global. Cardinale says he's "pencils down" on all major U.S. sports team acquisitions right now as valuations soar. "If you're a student of history, you know that always going up is not is not a great arbiter for making an investment," said Cardinale. "There needs to be some normalization in what I see as a bit of an asset bubble." Since we started this newsletter in September, I've spoken with many people who have touted the benefits of sports team ownership. They've pointed out investing in a franchise tends to be recession proof. The assets are scarce and appeal to rich people's vanity – a constant in all macroeconomic environments. The values are largely tied to media rights deals, which keep going up and up , at least for the big U.S. sports. The influx of private equity owners has added potential bidders, which boosts prices. The private equity firm Arctos Partners created an index with the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan that tracks team transactions over the past 60 years. The results are clear: team valuations have risen for six decades in a row, including a stunning jump in recent years. The phrase "up and to the right" has never been more accurate. Arctos is one of the firms that's now allowed to buy a piece of a National Football League team – a rule that changed last year. Arctos quickly acquired a 10% stake in the Buffalo Bills. Ares Management, another authorized PE firm, has bought a 10% stake in the Miami Dolphins. RedBird isn't on the NFL's list of accepted private equity limited owners, but Cardinale told me he's uninterested in buying a minority stake in any major U.S. team right now. "I don't think that's a great investment," Cardinale said. "I want to have an involvement, a partnership, in the actual governance, in the underwriting of the business plan." A 10% ownership stake gives firms little control over day-to-day team operations. Minority investments come with no voting rights. Cardinale told me one of the major red flags for team ownership is a lack of generally accepted equity research for the asset class. Almost all sports teams aren't publicly traded. That has limited the insight into cash flow projections for how they'll perform. He noted Forbes Magazine and CNBC Sport's team valuations (led by our Michael Ozanian ) are the primary way investors research valuations given the lack of options. Cardinale says he's more interested in being the majority owner of a U.S. sports team one day – just not at today's prices. "I don't like the entry prices right now, because the underlying business plans are not there to really pay for it, and it relies on a certain assumption on media rights trajectory," he said. Cardinale noted that while NBA and NFL media rights have soared for decades, the question will become "the slope of the curve" for future deals. The NFL can opt out of its current media rights deal after the 2029-30 season. The NBA has its TV deal locked up until the end of the 2036-37 season. He predicted we'll see rights payments fall for sports with lower ratings – though perhaps not Major League Baseball. Cardinale is invested in New England Sports Network (NESN), which carries local Boston Red Sox games, through RedBird's minority stake in Fenway Sports Group. RedBird is also a minority owner in the YES Network, which owns the New York Yankees' local rights. That puts Cardinale in an unusually strong position to help dictate the future of local MLB rights. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been vocal about his desire to take back local rights from regional sports networks in 2028 to sell a new nationalized product. Manfred will need buy-in from the big-market clubs like the Red Sox and the Yankees, whose RSNs bring in tens of millions more in annual revenue than those of smaller markets. Cardinale said one idea being discussed is to form a new company that could own local rights and negotiate with distributors. "The challenge baseball always has is there's a subtle tension between the big markets and the small markets. They both need each other," Cardinale said. "I think that baseball will do very well having groups like the YES Network and NESN – the Yankees, the Red Sox – and there are others like the Cubs and LA [Dodgers] anchor what ultimately will be a centralized media company." At this point, Cardinale's idea is hypothetical. MLB has talked to many people about different plans for regional games, according to people familiar with the league's conversations. A company that controls media but grants different amounts of equity in the venture to clubs isn't part of the league's current thinking, the people said. Still, Cardinale points out that teams should think of themselves as their own live entertainment entities and that there would be clear value in a company that could see distribution rights to all games at a national level. An MLB spokesperson declined to comment. On the record With RedBird Capital Partners founder Gerry Cardinale ... I spoke with Cardinale about several of RedBird's investments, including the UFL – that's the name of the combined USFL-XFL spring football league, which came together last year. I gave Cardinale an impassioned plea for the UFL to rebrand itself as an NFL developmental league that could service players such as Trey Lance , a quarterback who desperately needs live reps but can't get them because there's no forum for him to play what essentially should be minor-league football. The NBA has the G League, and the MLB and NHL have minor league affiliated clubs that offer the ability to develop talent for major league teams. The NFL doesn't have this same system, and the UFL could be that … Watch the entire interview here . Or listen to it here and follow the CNBC Sport podcast if you prefer the audio version. And if you go the audio route, a bonus: I also discuss the week's biggest sports and media news including my thoughts on Cardinale's interview with my colleague Lillian Rizzo . CNBC Sport highlight reel The best of CNBC Sport from the past week: One of those stories I talked about with Lillian was her report that high school sports at PBS stations are at risk with potential federal funding cuts. You can read that story right here. It's been a rough go recently for apparel companies, but the Swiss brand On is slowly gaining market share at the expense of Nike and Adidas, reports CNBC's Merritt Enright . CNBC contributor Karen Finerman joined "Fast Money" to talk about her investment, alongside Alibaba founder Jack Ma and supermodel Karlie Kloss , in the WNBA's New York Liberty, valuing the team at about $450 million. A CNBC Sport exclusive: Private equity firm Valeas Capital has acquired a majority stake in TicketManager, a company that specializes in managing corporate ticket sales, for $110 million. Have you heard of Hyrox? It's a series of fitness races that are drawing hundreds of thousands of athletes — both professional and amateur — and also more than $100 million in revenue. CNBC's Brandon Gomez has the details. The big number: 7.05 million A mammoth ratings number for Sunday's Indianapolis 500 is a clear win for Fox. The broadcast network took the TV rights from NBC beginning this year. Last year's race on NBC drew 5.02 million viewers. This year's race had the biggest TV audience for the event in 17 years. Quote of the week "It would be extremely prejudicial to Disney for Connolly to breach the contract which he negotiated just a few months ago and switch teams when Disney is working on a new licensing deal with the company that is trying to poach him." – Disney has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against YouTube for poaching veteran ESPN executive Justin Connolly . YouTube is making Connolly the steamer's global head of media and sports. Disney claims YouTube knew Connolly was under contract but offered a job to him anyway and "induced Connolly to breach the Employment Agreement," at a time when Connolly was working on a new licensing agreement between Disney and YouTube. "Connolly has intimate knowledge of Disney's other distribution deals, the financial details concerning Disney's content being licensed to YouTube, and Disney's negotiation strategies, both in general and in particular with respect to YouTube," the lawsuit claims. I'm going to crowdsource this one – what's the best sports/athlete analogy for this? I'm thinking of an athlete on one team who is traded mid-season to an arch rival to work for the other team. The one that came to mind will be a winner with my younger audience – the Chicago Cubs trading Lou Brock to the St. Louis Cardinals in June 1964. Around the league WNBA players want to get paid more, and that quest will be driven by additional revenue coming into the league. A key component of that will be advertising. The WNBA has struck a deal with Nielsen to measure its television viewership across traditional TV and streaming – the largest commercial measurement deal Nielsen has ever struck with a women's sports league, Axios's Sara Fischer reports . The College Football Playoff needs to figure out its next iteration, which could include moving to a 16-team field. ESPN has more details on the latest thinking about different big-time college football programs. One of 54 T206 Honus Wagner cards is currently up for auction, but you're going to need to pay at least $3.2 million, Sportico reports . The 1909 American Tobacco Company T206 is the gold standard for baseball card collectors. The last T206 Wagner up for auction sold in 2022 for $7.25 million by Goldin Auctions.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US investment firm Redbird plans to buy Britain's Telegraph newspaper
A consortium led by US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners has agreed to buy the publisher of Britain's 170-year-old Daily Telegraph newspaper for about £500 million (€595.5m), the two sides said on Friday. RedBird said it has reached an agreement in principle to become the controlling owner of the Telegraph Media Group, ending a lengthy takeover saga for the conservative-leaning newspaper. Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird, said the sale 'marks the start of a new era for The Telegraph, as we look to grow the brand in the UK and internationally, invest in its technology and expand its subscriber base.' The Telegraph group, previously owned by Britain's Barclay family, was put up for sale two years ago to help pay off the family's debts. It publishes the daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and weekly newsmagazine The Spectator, which are all closely allied to Britain's Conservative Party. In 2023, there was an offer to buy the publications from RedBird IMI, a consortium backed by RedBird Capital Partners and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family and the vice president of the United Arab Emirates. However, the consortium pulled out last year following strong opposition from the UK government, which launched legislation to block foreign state ownership of the British press. Under the deal, Abu Dhabi's IMI will take a minority stake of not more than 15% in the Telegraph as a member of the consortium. The sale must be approved by British regulators. RedBird has investments in soccer team AC Milan, the parent company of Liverpool football club and film production company Skydance. Telegraph Media Group chief executive Anna Jones said that 'RedBird Capital Partners have exciting growth plans that build on our success — and will unlock our full potential across the breadth of our business.' The Spectator was sold separately in September to British hedge fund investor Paul Marshall.
