Wade Davis is officially Univision’s new CEO. He takes over the reins from Vince Sadusky, who led the company since mid-2018, when he replaced Randy Falco.
The leadership change comes as a result of the FCC approval, which paved the way for completion of the sale of a majority stake in Univision Holdings, Inc. by investment groups Searchlight Capital Partners, LP and ForgeLight LLC.
Davis, a former Viacom CFO, is the CEO and founder of ForgeLight.
As part of the deal, Televisa will hold on to its ownership interest in Univision and convert its warrants into common stock. Televisa will also maintain its Program License Agreement.
The transaction, which was first reported in February 2020, was finalized December 29, date Davis effectively took over his leadership role at Univision.
The investor group led by Searchlight and ForgeLight, purchased an approximately 64% ownership interest in Univision from Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Saban Capital Group. Televisa retained its approximate 36% stake in Univision’s fully diluted equity capital.
The FCC ruling also granted the buyers’ petition to allow increasing foreign ownership beyond the long-time established 25% cap. The decision actually allows Univision foreign ownership to reach 100%, which now gives Televisa room to grow its stake in the company in the future.
According to the company, Univision’s new leadership team plans to use its existing platforms and “pipeline of entertainment, sports and news content to deepen its relationship with the Hispanic community” and will “seek new opportunities to innovate and accelerate growth by creating new market-defining content for the next generation of Hispanic viewers, expanding its portfolio of advertising products and enhancing its digital presence.”
I am not sure how to feel that the FCC permitted the lifting of foreign ownership to 100%. This is going to open a can of worms years down the road.
True.
The decision to allow foreign entities to buy more than the 25% of a broadcast television network will allow countries like China and Russia to purchase any television network in the U.S. This can’t be allowed.
So, so sadly, America’s broadcast air has been bastardized with dilution of NAB programming codes and Communication Act of 1934 ownership rules trashing since Reagan’s quid pro quo for biased coverage in the 80s..Authors of the Act, no doubt, turning in their graves ever since. And, now, comes the oligarch manipulated FCC wholesale giveaway on foreign ownership and, soon, our air will no longer belong to us. No longer modulated according to U.S. tastes and purposes but to who knows what alien intentions? Long gone are the ingenious and patriotic tenets of original electronic media, along with the home grown values, service and warmth of ‘mom and pop’ local stations. A design, ironically enough, tailor made for domestic spanish language audiences. Is ‘Spanish TV’ to be made the poster boy for the dissolution of the original dream of American broadcasting? The ultimate and only benefactor, global money. How very, very sad.