Digiday DealBook: Twitter deal continues to advance, networks fight for Formula 1 rights, Getty Images creates a new interactive visual tool and more

Welcome to Digiday’s DealBook. Our focus is to create a quick and easy rundown of the deals, acquisitions and hires that took place the previous week. The goal is to inform and update you on the latest happenings in the industry at the top of your inbox each Monday. — Carly Weihe

—Slowly but surely, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter seems to be advancing. The delay has several prongs: federal antitrust regulators failed to review the deal in the standard 30-day window and the deal cleared the antitrust review by default, meaning the company can now move forward with the agreement. However, Musk himself continues to delay the process too, claiming that Twitter has not been forthcoming about the number of fake accounts on the site and won’t move forward until the company is more transparent about its users. In turn, Twitter finally agreed to give Musk access to its data; however, it is unclear what this data is or how much direct access Musk will have. Currently, the agreement is estimated to be worth $54.20 a share, although this is subject to change, particularly given this unstable moment for the economy — a fact that might be motivating Musk’s decision as many experts believe Musk is postponing the deal as Tesla’s stocks plummet.

—Netflix, ESPN and NBCUniversal are competing for the upcoming renewal of Formula 1’s U.S. rights in 2023, as the auto sports league is rapidly growing in popularity across the globe. The surge in viewership was apparent following the races held in Miami in May when more than 2.6 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch on ABC. The deal is estimated to be worth $100 million, and ESPN has the rights through the end of the year. Elsewhere in sports media news, PGA Tour renewed its U.K. deal with Sky Sports. Warner Bros. Discovery, who has had the U.S. rights since 2018 following a $2 billion deal, has since sublicensed PGA Tour U.K. content to Sky Sports. Finally, Tom Brady’s ever-growing sports media company, Religion of Sports, has raised $50 million in Series B Funding with Shamrock Capital accounting for a significant part of the funding.

—Getty Images, a content creation and management company, created VisualGPS Insights, an interactive tool its customers can use for visual and data insights. VisualGPS users will have access to over 2.5 billion images available to Getty and iStock customers for download. In addition, VisualGPS will serve as a reference point for brands looking to see how 825,000 other companies engage with and impact consumers via images.

In other news…

Latino Media Network acquired Chicago’s Spanish language radio station WRTO, among 17 other radio stations, in a $60 million deal with TelevisaUnivision. The female-led company purchased the stations, which span eight major cities, and secured the deal with an investment from Lakestar Finance.
Amazon’s Consumer CEO, Dave Clark, announced his resignation this week. Clark, who worked at Amazon for over 20 years, was the former head of Amazon’s logistics business.
HiDef, an “interactive entertainment” company, announced …read more
Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron