Owners Club Newsletter - January 18th
LAFC expands MCO Model in Europe, Amazon to invest in Diamond Sports Group, Apex invests in TGL SF, Bautista takes over the Lights, and Thorns sell for record price
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News & Highlights:
Manchester United: Jim Ratcliffe submits offer for 25% of Class A shares on NYSE
Former MLB Icon José Bautista Acquires USL’S Las Vegas Lights FC
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Deals
Recent Sports M&A News and Developments
LAFC confirm Grasshopper Club Zurich takeover - Sports Pro Media - January 18th
Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC have confirmed their takeover of Swiss top-fight side Grasshopper Club Zurich. Having been linked with a deal for Grasshoppers since last October, LAFC’s long-term strategic partnership forms part of the MLS franchise’s global vision of building winning teams by supporting the development of top young talent.
The deal sees LAFC further expand their brand outside of North America, having invested in Austria’s FC Wacker Innsbruck and founded the joint venture Red&Gold Football with German champions Bayern Munich for talent development in markets such as South America and Africa in 2023.
Amazon to Acquire Minority Stake in Diamond Sports Group - yahoo!finance - January 17th
Amazon will make a minority stake investment in Diamond Sports Group as part of a new restructuring agreement that will help the regional sports network operator emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Under the agreement, Prime Video will offer its customers direct-to-consumer access to stream local Diamond channels. Content available through Prime Video Channels will include live MLB, NBA and NHL games as well as pre- and post-game programming for teams for which Diamond retains DTC rights.
Former MLB Icon José Bautista Acquires USL’S Las Vegas Lights FC - Profluence Sports - January 16th
José Bautista, a retired Major League Baseball All-Star, has finalized the purchase of the United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights FC, becoming the primary investor and taking on the roles of chairman and governor. The financial specifics of this deal were not made public.
Apex Capital and Several European Athletes Invest in TGL SF - Profluence Sports - January 13th
APEX Capital has joined forces with Formula 1 driver Alex Albon and Manchester City soccer player John Stones to invest in a San Francisco-based team partaking in the TGL, an innovative indoor golf league initiated by golf legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
NWSL’s Portland Thorns Sell for Record $63M - Front Office Sports - January 3rd
The Portland Thorns have been sold for $63 million, a record price for the acquisition of an NWSL club.
Business moguls Lisa Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bhathal, are buying the Thorns from Merritt Paulson, who has owned the women’s team since its inaugural season in 2013. Paulson is also the founder of the Portland Timbers, which entered MLS in 2011. The Bhathal family is also a minority owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and Sacramento River Cats (the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants).
PGA Tour and DP World Tour's proposed deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment fund misses deadline - BBC Sports - January 2nd
A framework agreement between the tour and its DP World Tour counterparts and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), should have been ratified by the turn of the year.
The deadline on the deal, which we were initially told would take only weeks to conclude, has come and gone. It was marked only by a memo to his players from the PGA Tour's commissioner Jay Monahan.
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