The Morning Chop: Corporate Wheelings and Dealings for Liberty Media?
Corporate Controls
One other thought: we hear about corporate buyouts and mergers fairly routinely. This one involves $71.3 billion. The SunTrust/BB&T merger is said to be a $66 billion deal.
These are numbers that seem routine in the business world, but are all together foreign concepts to you and me… numbers that we’re definitely not accustomed to using on a daily basis.
But while we’re talking about buying the networks that the sport is largely broadcast from… what if the sport itself were for sale?
Let me spell it out clearly: what if a company decided to make a bid for the MLB? Like… all of it.
It kind of boggles the mind, though LM itself already owns Formula 1 racing. Not the individual teams of drivers, but the sport itself.
However, individual teams are bought and sold… could all of them be purchased? (Hey – you think there’s collusion now….)
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Just for fun, let’s then guess at a price for the whole kit-and-caboodle (while trying to err on the high side):
- Most teams could be had for an average of $2 billion. Say 20 teams… $40 billion.
- Larger-market clubs would command $3 billion. Six of the rest… round up to $20 billion
- the Yankees/Red Sox/Dodgers/etc. could require $5-10 billion. Call it $25 million.
- Add in another $10 billion for the rest of the assets and the MLB Network.
I could see $95 billion being in the ballpark, which is not an unprecedented number. That would be a Top-5-ranked transaction all time, but not beyond other things we’ve seen in times’ past. Interesting.
Mind you, I’m not advocating that this happens by any means: one of the charms of baseball is that we’ve had colorful owners through the ages with their unique personalities. Would definitely hate to lose that flavor. But it is an interesting thought to toss around for a bit.
Hopefully not a Swan-song. dark. Next
One thing I can guess at, though, regarding the Fox Regional Sports Networks: I don’t really see a downside if Liberty Media prevails in this contest.