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GdS: Cardinale involved in $8bn Paramount deal as RedBird expands further

While we wait for concrete developments regarding the future of AC Milan, Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital empire continues to expand at a rapid rate.

La Gazzetta dello Sport talk about the entrepreneurial vision of Cardinale, a businessman accustomed to looking well beyond the confines of just a sporting event and instead looking to exploit the links with the media industry.

The latest big deal handled by RedBird’s number one goes in this direction, which allowed Skydance Media – an American production company – to reach an agreement with Paramount for the acquisition of a majority shareholding, quantifiable at around two thirds of the total stake.

The merger is awaiting approval from Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, but a deal has been struck anyway. In terms of numbers, Skydance and RedBird would contribute $1.5bn to Paramount’s balance sheet, to help reduce debt.

The entire deal is valued at $8bn, $3bn more than the previous offer. It should be remembered that Paramount has held the Serie A rights for the USA for the last three years, just as the partnership with Inter, of which it had been the shirt sponsor, expires at the end of the month.

The acquisition of Paramount is a consortium made up of Skydance and the private equity firms RedBird and KKR. Cardinale, therefore, continues with the financial and strategic expansion linked to his fund, with imaginable future repercussions also on the Rossoneri world.

Calcio e Finanza reported last month that RedBird has ‘renewed its arsenal of deals’ with $4.7bn (at current exchange rates, €4.3bn) to invest in more sports, media and financial services businesses after two years filled with some high-profile transactions.

Tags AC Milan

16 Comments

    1. Didn’t read the article huh? The purchase isn’t yet complete and the Inter sponsorship ends this month.

  1. People get uncomfortable when the conversation is money and business deals and revenue but then get mad we’re not out buying expensive players…

    1. Actually… Wouldn’t it be better if RedBird lost the ownership back to Elliott? Maybe the next buyer has a more ambitious project in mind than just “sell for huge profit”.

      1. How is spending €100 million and paying €20 million for land not ambitious? They spent far more than Elliott did.

      2. Unless your German (and that caveat won’t last much longer), there are two types of owners of top clubs:

        Deflect attention away from warcrimes and infiltrate the local land market – like how City’s owners now also own about 1/5 of Manchester and no one seems to care

        Wrap the club into a wider portfolio and make a profit off the ‘brand’.

        Both stink. One stinks more than the other.

        The ‘multi-multi-billionaire Milanista with a dream’ you are looking for doesn’t exist.

        1. papa_frezz, you are wasting your breath trying to explain reality or even talk common sense to the financially illiterate table on this site.

  2. Rubbish cardinale should build Milan and buy quality players not this talk talk.
    Get good players because no one notice the expansion without the Milan senior team doing great
    Man City became very popular and increased their expansion through the football team.
    Milan is always noise makers when it comes to the transfer while others are getting stronger.

    1. City’s owners – who have infinite wealth, sneaked in before the rules changed and went (wrongly) unchallenged by the league they are in when they started throwing stupid amounts of money at things.

      Then said league tried to reign them in, so instead of accepting the advantage they had created thus far and adhering to the rules, they started hiding money and are now suing the very league that let them get away with all sorts for years because “it’s not fair”.

      Please don’t compare us to them.

      I grew up in Manchester and am now back there. I have friends who regularly went and watched City struggle in the 3rd tier in the 90s. Those same people now brag about their revenue and are in full support of their truly awful, insidious owners, just because they are winning stuff 😀

      The great contradiction that is the human brain.

    1. They do yes.

      In fact, you’re currently on a website devoted to the football team; it aggregates news from all over the planet pertaining to it…including the movements and dealing of it’s owners.

  3. Perfect, I don’t understand why people complain, strengthen the brand and the club, yet they complain about money, here really are morons who don’t understand how finances in football works. If our revenue increases we can spend more, more exposure more brand value= Bigger and better sponsors. Which equals bigger revenue and gives us more freedom to spend. Jesus I’m embarrassed by some people who call themselves fans of the club at the moment.

  4. I like the fact that the club is not in debt. However, we need to face reality. Cardinale bought Milan as an investment and not as a football fan. Hence he promoted his banker. This is economics whether we like it or not. He will resell in future when he reached his investment target with Milan. For now we need to suck it up and hope for top 4 every season.

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