Google News San Francisco's sports site The Athletic to be acquired by New York Times for $550mln
by SOURAV D | VIEW 1550
New York Times Co., the New York City-headquartered American daily newspaper that owned 132 Pulitzer prices since its inception back in 1851s, has agreed to a $550 million acquisition of a subscription-based sports website, The Athletic, the Information had reported late on Thursday citing sources familiar with the situation who wished to remain anonymous given the scale of sensitivity of the issue. On top of that, the Information news report had added that ‘The Athletic’ had coffered about a $47 million in revenues in 2020, but was scuffling since the onset of pandemic outbreak as most live sports events had been petered out.
Aside from that, latest win-win deal for New York Times, the 173-year old newspaper that holds a dual-class share structure and is governed by a Sulzberger family, came forth as ‘The Athletic’ had reportedly been languishing amid a pandemic-induced downturn in live events, while the Californian sports site also had been forced to slash staffs and workers’ wages during early days of pandemic.
New York Times to purchase sports website ‘The Athletic’
Nonetheless, while being asked over the issue, neither New York Times nor The Athletic had commented over the news report. However, The Athletic had forecasted a drop of $77 million in revenues for 2021, while it had drained as many as $35 million in fresh capitals to stay operational.
If truth is to be spoken, a buyout deal for ‘The Athletic’ in effect would significantly scale New York Times’ digital offerings higher, as the century-old newspaper was looking to cash in on its subscription-first business stratagem amid a steep decline in advertisements for print media.