New York Times to buy sports site the Athletic in $550 million deal per Report (updated with quotes & New York Times Confirms)
The New York Times Co has agreed to acquire subscription sports site The Athletic in a deal valued at around $550 million
Update 5:10 pm EST:
The New York Times has confirmed an earlier report that they have acquired the Atheltic. Meredith Kopit Levien, president, and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company, said, “Acquiring The Athletic puts us in a position to be a global leader in sports journalism and offer English speakers around the world another reason to turn to the Times Company to meet their daily news and life needs. The Times already provides distinctive sports coverage for a general interest audience as part of our core report. As a stand-alone product, The Athletic will enable us to offer much more — extensive coverage for fans who seek a deep connection to and understanding of their favorite teams, leagues and players. With one of the largest dedicated teams of reporters covering sports globally and a commitment to everyday reporting, The Athletic is a great complement to The Times.”
The Athletic is currently expected to be immediately accretive to The New York Times Company’s revenue growth rate. The Times Company expects the acquisition will be dilutive to The New York Times Company’s operating profit for approximately three years, as it scales subscriptions and builds an advertising business, and accretive thereafter.
Mr. Mather and Mr. Hansmann who founded The Athletic said, “We started The Athletic to bring fans closer to the teams, players and leagues they love through deep, immersive journalism and storytelling. Today marks a thrilling milestone for that dream, one realized because of the hard work of every single one of our employees. We are proud to have The Athletic become part of The Times Company’s family of subscription products. When we founded the company, we hoped to become the sports page for every city in the world. We’re excited to continue serving our avid subscribers as we grow and scale with the help of the most important journalistic organization and the leader in digital subscription news.”
The Information has just reported that the New York Times has agreed to buy sports site The Athletic citing a person familiar with the situation. From the article: "The deal is a major acquisition for the Times, giving it a new pocket of subscription customers to the New York Times, which has set an ambitious goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by 2025. As of Sept 30, the Times reported 8.3 million digital and print subscribers.
“As a general matter of policy, we do not comment on rumors about potential acquisitions or divestitures,” a Times spokesperson told TheWrap last spring when news of the sports site’s interest in the acquisition by the paper first broke. An Athletic rep said something similar at the time: “The Athletic does not comment on rumors or speculation in the market.”
“With sports on pause due to the ongoing pandemic, today we made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our staff in select coverage areas,” a representative told TheWrap at the time, adding they were hopeful sports would resume (which they did) but the measure was “necessary to ensure that the company can weather the uncertainty that lies ahead.”
The Athletic had been looking for a buyer for months and sought a valuation of $750 million, according to The Information, though it was valued at $500 million in 2020 according to Bloomberg and Axios. Additionally, The Athletic is not expected to turn a profit until 2023, according to The Information, which reported that in 2020, the sports site made $47 million in revenue and spent $41 million.
