Murdoch back on the acquisition warpath: buys into Yankees' cable
Rupert Murdoch, putting the horrors of London behind him, is back on the acquisition trail. News Corp. has acquired nearly half of the YES Network, cable home of the New York Yankees. After three years, it can boost its position to 80 percent (pending Major League Baseball approval). The 49 percent stake is extremely valuable : Forbes has valued the network at some $3.4 billion.
Murdoch: a Yankees fan now.
The Yankees, Goldman Sachs and other investors will reduce their stakes to make room for News Corp. There a pile of cash for the Yankees in the deal: they own 34 percent of the network at present and will become at least $400 million richer. The deal is expected to close by year-end. The Goldman stake will fall from 30 percent to 12 percent.
A contract between the Yankees and YES twill keep the team on the regional sports network until 2042. The 11-year-old YES is in about 9 million households in the New York area; it carries both Yankees baseball games and Brooklyn Nets basketball.
YES brought in $502.3 million in affiliate fee revenue last year, with $68.7 million in ad revenue on top of that.
What next from Murdoch? Are the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times newspapers beckoning, now that they have emerged from bankruptcy?