The firm participated in a $325 million investment round for Fanatics in August, valuing the merchandiser at $18 billion.It purchased a 10% stake in Manchester City owner City Football Group for $500 million in 2019.The investment firm has established a notable footprint in sports. Silver Lake has $90 billion in assets under management and committed capital, and its portfolio of brands collectively generate more than $227 billion in annual revenue.
The A-Leagues - which oversee Australia’s top-flight men’s and women’s soccer clubs - will use the funds to support growth and build a fan-centric digital media platform. The deal, which has received regulatory approval, marks the largest ever single-cash injection into Australian club soccer.
Global investment firm Silver Lake Partners has acquired a 33.3% stake in the Australian Professional Leagues for roughly $100 million, valuing the business at $303 million. This month, La Liga also ratified its agreement with CVC Capital Partners in which the equity firm would spend $2.3 billion for an 8.2% stake in a new company that would oversee the league’s media rights. In July, Orange, a French telecom company, renewed its sublicensing agreement with Telefónica for rights to La Liga and UEFA club competitions in a $356 million deal. In May, La Liga reached an eight-year broadcasting deal with ESPN. The Premier League rolled over existing deals with the same terms.Serie A, Ligue 1, and Bundesliga’s domestic broadcasting deals signed in the last year all saw a decrease in value.While the deal’s annual increase is small, the jump shows La Liga’s strength compared to its counterparts.
Despite the number of pay-TV subscriptions falling by 4 million since the 2016-17 season, the new deal is a slight annual increase from $1.1 billion to $1.12 billion per season. Telefónica’s current three-year deal with the league is worth roughly $3.32 billion. The deal, worth $5.58 billion, starts in the 2022-23 season and ends Movistar’s run as the league’s main domestic broadcaster. The pair will each air five matches per week. La Liga has inked its longest broadcasting rights deal ever - a five-year agreement split by DAZN and Telefónica’s Movistar. Last month it launched Nikeland, a virtual space within Roblox in which users may play games, check out products, and socialize. Nike is looking more toward digital environments to build its brand: On Monday, it announced the acquisition of NFT fashion and collectibles maker RTFKT. Of that sum, $245 million was spent on media, according to research firm COMvergence, primarily in the Asia Pacific region ($120 million) and North America ($95 million).Nike’s ad and promotional expenses reached $3.1 billion in fiscal 2021, down 13% year-over-year due to pandemic-related cutbacks.Requests for proposals are expected to begin next year. Nike has requested information from GroupM, Omnicom Media Group, Dentsu Media, Publicis Media, IPG Mediabrands, Stagwell Media, and Havas Media.Jordan Brand’s media is also up for review, but Converse‘s is not.
Nike uses a variety of agencies across different global markets, each of which will have to justify its role as a partner of The Swoosh. The process, which Nike hasn’t conducted at this scale in more than 10 years, is only just beginning and is expected to run until spring.
Nike is reportedly conducting a full review of its media accounts, inviting a host of major ad and media agencies to compete for their portion of around $1 billion.