RBR+TVBR INFOCUS
For months, there’s been chatter of a sale of Univision Communications, with various unconfirmed reports across multiple news organizations. RBR+TVBR first alerted readers to these reports in December.
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 25, the rumors became reality: The 64% ownership in Univision not held by Mexico’s Grupo Televisa has been snagged by a pair of investment firms in an arrangement that will see the exit of CEO Vince Sadusky.
Of the three parties said to be bidders for Univision by The Wall Street Journal some eight weeks ago, one has emerged victorious. That would the offer put forward by Wade Davis, a former Viacom CFO. Davis’ bid was perhaps the most intriguing, as Davis would unseat Sadusky as Univision’s chief executive.
It turns out that this was the offer Univision’s majority owners opted for, in a move that finally frees them of what turned out to be a disappointing debt-laden investment made just as the great recession of the late 2000s reared its ugly head on Wall Street.
