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Atairos - new minority owners of Villa


ender4

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Some further digging, it seems like Atairos is some kind of offshoot from Comcast, one of the largest US communication services / media companies who also own Sky (and NBC and a bunch of other US TV networks). 

“Angelakis left his position as CFO at Comcast in 2016 to launch Atairos, the greek word for partnership, with $4 billion in Comcast funds and $40 million of his own capital. The partnership came with various stipulations, including $8 million in compensation for Angelakis as part of $40 million in management fees from Comcast. Additionally, Comcast has first rights to purchase any Atairos investments. The relationship also opens up opportunities for companies in the Atairos portfolio to work with Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky.

In a recent quarterly filing, Comcast said its investment in Atairos was $5.1 billion as of Sept. 30.”

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2023/11/06/comcast-atairos-fundraising-one-billion.html?csrc=6398&taid=654945cde3c7eb0001007af2&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

 

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16 minutes ago, david-avfc said:

Some further digging, it seems like Atairos is some kind of offshoot from Comcast, one of the largest US communication services / media companies who also own Sky (and NBC and a bunch of other US TV networks). 

Even most of Atarios' profits are going straight back to Comcast.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/business/comcast/20160218_Angelakis_launches_his__40b_Comcast-financed_fund.html

Quote

After Comcast recoups its investment into Atairos, the Atairos gains will be split 87.5 percent to Comcast and 12.5 percent to Angelakis and his management team.

So Atairos is run by the the ex-CFO of Comcast, the sole investor into the company is Comcast, and virtually all of the profits go back to Comcast. Definitely an independent investment firm in name only.

Which makes the aims of both parties in this transaction all the more interesting, given that it is essentially Comcast investing into V Sports.

Edited by wishywashy
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Long term future imo for tv rights is a Netflix style go it alone tv Chanel where the premier league do not rely on a broadcaster but go straight to consumer. I’d guess that you could easily get 100 million people world wide to spend £10 per month say dwarfing what Sky\TNT could ever offer being £12billion per season !

The current tv deal is dwarfed by the current NFL one and that’s why imo American investors are so keen on premier league clubs as the the reach is massive …  

Edited by thabucks
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19 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Long term future imo for tv rights is a Netflix style go it alone tv Chanel where the premier league do not rely on a broadcaster but go straight to consumer. I’d guess that you could easily get 100 million people world wide to spend £10 per month say dwarfing what Sky\TNT could ever offer… The tv deal is dwarfed by the current NFL one and that’s why imo American investors are so keen on premier league clubs as the the reach is massive …  

Absolutely. The new TV deal they announced a few weeks ago is for a 4-year period instead of a 3-year period, has way more games in it (270 instead of 200), and even then they only just barely managed to get more money out of the process. It's pretty clear that there was a peak. A different broadcasting model is definitely going to be pushed in the future, especially with all the American investors and broadcasters getting involved.

Which only raises more curiosities by what is essentially Comcast purchasing a minority stake in V Sports.

Edited by wishywashy
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2 hours ago, thabucks said:

Long term future imo for tv rights is a Netflix style go it alone tv Chanel where the premier league do not rely on a broadcaster but go straight to consumer. I’d guess that you could easily get 100 million people world wide to spend £10 per month say dwarfing what Sky\TNT could ever offer being £12billion per season !

The current tv deal is dwarfed by the current NFL one and that’s why imo American investors are so keen on premier league clubs as the the reach is massive …  

That would be disastrous for the competition as the likes of united, Liverpool etc would pull in billions more than anyone else. The Premer League deal is actually fairly distributive.

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13 hours ago, allani said:

If the deal is £80m - then I think that is about 2% of the net worth of NSWE.  So I think that it would be pretty easy for them to buy Atarios out if the partnership wasn't working out.  Also as it is such a small sum (in comparison to NSWE's worth) it doesn't look like something that suggests our owners have financial struggles and are having to bring in more capital to keep the club afloat.  I suspect (given the sport, media, Philadelphia connection) that the people at Atarios are well known to Edens / Heck.  If, for example, we announce NBC as our new shirt sponsor at £20m a season aided by Atarios then we've massively improved our FFP position, we've probably got the consultancy paid for through the partnership and we've kept Atarios interested in further deals because they've got skin in the game too.  Unless there is some kind of FFP angle to this - I just can't see how this is a "cash" deal only.  There must be something that NSWE / Heck want (or know they are going to get) out of the deal because Nas could find £80m down the back of his sofa. 

It certainly seems a long way from any of the Christian Purslow’s plans to raise the club’s income by charging more to supporters during a cost of living crisis. The arrival of Heck and his US connections along with connections that Wes also already had now seems to make a lot of sense. Modern high powered business in a USA style is now at the forefront of the club’s expansion and development. Thanks Wes and of course Nas who knows his way round a proper business deal too. 

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5 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

It certainly seems a long way from any of the Christian Purslow’s plans to raise the club’s income by charging more to supporters during a cost of living crisis. The arrival of Heck and his US connections along with connections that Wes also already had now seems to make a lot of sense. Modern high powered business in a USA style is now at the forefront of the club’s expansion and development. Thanks Wes and of course Nas who knows his way round a proper business deal too. 

Don’t you worry. The fans are still going to have to pay increasingly more.

Tickets are going to be at a crazy premium with the reduced capacity for the next two years. I expect season tickets to go up again 10/15% minimum. 

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20 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

Don’t you worry. The fans are still going to have to pay increasingly more.

Tickets are going to be at a crazy premium with the reduced capacity for the next two years. I expect season tickets to go up again 10/15% minimum. 

Supply and demand I’d image will always be given as a reason/excuse. I suppose the on pitch product has dramatically improved and long may that continue please Unai! But if the club can squeeze a bit more from other sources, surely that’s hit to be good for all of us?

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9 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

That would be disastrous for the competition as the likes of united, Liverpool etc would pull in billions more than anyone else. The Premer League deal is actually fairly distributive.

Nah you just tweakt he model so that the money is pooled and then shared, a streaming platform giving you options on what or more importantly who you watch is 100% the future

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2 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Supply and demand I’d image will always be given as a reason/excuse. I suppose the on pitch product has dramatically improved and long may that continue please Unai! But if the club can squeeze a bit more from other sources, surely that’s hit to be good for all of us?

Reduced capacity while we develop more capacity in the long term is a short term problem which we will have to live with I’m afraid. 

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2 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Supply and demand I’d image will always be given as a reason/excuse. I suppose the on pitch product has dramatically improved and long may that continue please Unai! But if the club can squeeze a bit more from other sources, surely that’s hit to be good for all of us?

To be honest I’m worried it’s going to be more than 10/15%. Bottom line is that they could increase by 50% and still sell out 36k seats or however much the reduced capacity will be….

Hopefully if we make champions league that will mean less pain for all of us. 

 

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I see some news outlet saying that the investment is from a Comcast-backed investment firm. So never mind Atarios and it's $6.5bn portfolio, Comcast is valued at $275.33bn.

Surely that puts us as the second richest club in the world now behind Newcastle?!

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46 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Nah you just tweakt he model so that the money is pooled and then shared, a streaming platform giving you options on what or more importantly who you watch is 100% the future

If Ive understood correctly what you mean, then I’d agree with you completely. Since moving to The Highlands we are now 460 miles, if google maps are accurate, from our door to the Holte End and so after years of being a season ticket holder I am now an armchair fan. However in a deal negotiated with my wife we got Sky with the Sports package. However since not many of our games are covered by Sky we recently cancelled Sky for this very reason. My wife once called me a beer swigging, football obsessed, workaholic, Brummy chancer. But I felt obliged to argue that I wasn’t football obsessed but admitted to being Villa obsessed and so Sky had to go. I have a Now TV app to watch Sky games on my phone but I can chose which ones I watch. We have Amazon Prime too in a separate deal so I see the odd game on a proper screen but that’s life and I love living in the Highlands so if this is the down side I can happily live with it. But choice of what games we watch is indeed the future. We’re neither rich or skint but we want what we pay for, which I think most people do I know we should all be grateful to Sky for inventing football in 1992 but the world has moved on and as a modern man, I want it all and I want it now, please and by all I mean it’s all about Villa. Not now not in the past or the future, just always thank you and that  won’t change with our league position either. I’d settle for a place in the top 1 though! UTV!!!!!

Edited by DaveAV1
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