MIAMI — The man who engineered the merger of two of the largest Spanish-language media companies in the world has been ousted by its board of directors.
Wade Davis is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of TelevisaUnivision, the company announced early Thursday, after reports in The New York Times and Reuters distributed Wednesday evening cited unnamed sources close to the matter that a change in leadership was imminent.
Who’s his successor? It’s an individual from Mexico who was President/COO of Activision Blizzard who previously spent 16 years with Google, spearheading its growth in Latin America.
Introducing Daniel Alegre, who is already in the CEO role, effective today (9/19).
Davis will remain involved in the company he created by taking the role of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors; he continue as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee.
Unlike Davis, whose resume includes a role leading finance for the former ViacomCBS, Alegre has extensive experience in Latin America and “has strong ties to the Hispanic community” — perhaps vital at a time when new studies from Claritas and Harker Bos Group each indicate U.S. Hispanics have greatly shifted their viewing time to streaming and cable and away from the broadcast television networks that have long dominated the U.S. Hispanic market, such as Univision and UniMás.
Meanwhile, Televisa has had its challenges in Mexico but in the last decade has successfully fended off main linear media challenger TV Azteca. At the same time, Netflix has made considerable gains and since 2018 has been actively advertising Spanish-language productions in key markets such as Mexico City.
Alegre most recently serve as Chief Executive Officer of Yuga Labs, a “web3” company.
At Activision Blizzard, he maintained oversight of the company’s international gaming studios and the commercialization of franchises of the company’s video games.
At Google, his roles included that of President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, President of Shopping and Payments and President of Asia Pacific and Latin America. Under Alegre, Google’s offices throughout Latin America and Asia came to fruition, pioneering the digital media giant’s first strategic partnership network across the regions.
Alegre started his career in radio and music in Mexico and across Central America.
“On behalf of the Board, I’m excited to welcome Daniel to TelevisaUnivision as we embark on the next phase of our strategic journey focused on further integration and optimization,” said Alfonso de Angoitia, Executive Chairman of TelevisaUnivision. “It’s been a very dynamic media environment, and we are grateful for what Wade has accomplished in the turnaround of Univision and the subsequent transformative merger between Univision and Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company. We are proud stewards of a storied and prolific content factory containing the largest Spanish language library of rich and iconic intellectual property. As we look to grow our unparalleled market position and the recent investments in our linear and streaming platforms as well as our news and sports products, Daniel is the right leader at the right time to take the helm. His unique global operational experience working in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America across technology, digital platforms and entertainment honed over three decades is exactly what TelevisaUnivision needs to drive our next phase.”
Alegre added, “The media landscape is undergoing a profound transformation and TelevisaUnivision is strategically poised to seize new opportunities while staying deeply connected to the communities we serve. The U.S. and Mexico represent the most valuable and populous Spanish-language markets in the world, a demographic that is becoming more prominent both regionally and globally. Building on TelevisaUnivision’s solid foundation, global content pipeline, ongoing investments in cutting-edge technologies, and unmatched reach, we are uniquely positioned to continue serving this vital audience. Wade and the entire TelevisaUnivision team have created a strong multi-platform media business with world-class quality and breadth of entertainment, news and sports programming. I look forward to working with our global teams and partners to build on TelevisaUnivision’s great history and take the Company to new heights.”
Just before Midnight, Mexico City time, Alegre posted to X [formerly Twitter], “Excited to be joining TelevisaUnivision as CEO. Exceptional team = incredible creativity and innovation. Proud to be a part of this unique company.”
‘ABOVE-MARKET REVENUE GROWTH’ … AND BIG DEBT
Davis was given an opportunity to comment on his departure as CEO in an official press release distributed before sunrise on Thursday; TelevisaUnivision representatives declined to respond to RBR+TVBR’s requests for comment on the New York Times and Reuters stories posted late Wednesday.
In the release, Davis commented, “In 2020 Searchlight, ForgeLight and Liberty Global partnered with Grupo Televisa in our acquisition of Univision, setting out to turnaround and transform the legacy business. The success of those efforts paved the way for the merger with Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – a business without comparison in the global media landscape today. Thanks to the efforts of our exceptional team, TelevisaUnivision has consistently delivered above-market revenue growth, outperformed the U.S. and Mexican advertising markets and launched and have grown our direct-to-consumer business, ViX, to become the largest dedicated Spanish-language streaming service in the world. We could not have picked a better successor than Daniel, who brings an incredible track record of operational and strategic execution. He is the ideal executive to take TelevisaUnivision into its next phase of growth. The company’s future is bright, and I look forward to supporting Daniel and the TelevisaUnivision team in my role as Vice Chairman of the Board.”
Eric Zinterhofer, Founding Partner of investor Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P., added, “We, alongside ForgeLight, invested in Univision in 2020 in support of Wade’s vision of a holistic, growth-led turnaround of the business. The transaction with Televisa was a continuation of that successful vision at a global scale, resulting in an unmatched, vertically integrated Hispanic media business. In coordination with Grupo Televisa, Wade and the management team, we accomplished the integration of TelevisaUnivision as well as the global launch of ViX, completing the multi-year transformation process. There has been longstanding alignment between TelevisaUnivision, Wade, Searchlight and the rest of the Board to effect an organized succession plan to bring in a world-class CEO to lead the Company in this next phase of its trajectory. We are all extremely supportive of Daniel and have full confidence in the Company’s strategy and management team.”
The narrative from The New York Times is somewhat different, with the publication noting that “TelevisaUnivision has struggled to grow profits under Mr. Davis since the merger. The company has not met several of its own internal budget targets in recent years, according to two people familiar with the company’s forecasts, and it is not on track to meet its internal financial target for this year.”
The newspaper also noted that TelevisaUnivision in July reported that it had roughly $9.8 billion dollars in debt, compared to $9.9 billion shortly after the merger between Televisa and Univision.
The company’s profits have also dipped, decreasing to $1.61 billion last year from $1.69 billion in 2022, the New York Times pointed out.
On December 29, 2021, Searchlight III UTD and ForgeLight‘s acquisition of a majority stake of Univision Holdings formally closed. Weeks later, Wade Davis took the CEO reins from Vince Sandusky, and shook up the C-Suite.
This put the wheels in motion on a mega-merger insiders had been discussing for years. On January 31, 2022, a “transformative” transaction between Mexico’s Televisa and Univision Communications was completed.
