Peek behind the bid
Time Inc. buyout would’ve grown SI franchise
EDGAR
Bronfman Jr. had some big plans for the titles at Time Inc., our sources reveal.
Bronfman, who led Warner Music Group before selling it to oil mogul billionaire Len Blavatnik for $3.3 billion in 2011, had a vision for Sports Illustrated in particular.
Our sources say Bronfman had designs on broadening the print magazine’s appeal by creating spinoff events, such as a reality TV show and perhaps even a “Victoria’s Secret”- style catwalk fashion show, moving it far beyond its sports origins. Sports Illustrated is famed for its annual racy swimsuit issue featuring models such as Kate Bock (pictured.)
Bronfman Jr. and Blavatnik are part of a group that also includes former Maker Studios Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz, who made an unsuccessful run at the public company, offering $1.8 billion to take it over.
Of course, Bronfman would know Time Inc. well. Warner Music was the first unit to break off from the mothership — Time Warner — four years after it was acquired by AOL. Time Inc. is also a separately traded entity.
Our tattlers say not to expect a higher bid from the consortium anytime soon, but keep an eye on savvy Bronfman’s future media and music ambitions. We hear he’s long had his eye on Sony’s entertainment assets, too.
Our Keith Kelly suggests Meredith may be on the prowl for Time Inc. again.
Mnuchin’s Hollywood
Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin isn’t all about numbers.
Our Tinseltown tipsters said he loved to hit the party circuit when he was nonexecutive co-chair of troubled movie studio Relativity.
We hear Mnuchin was at Elton John’s Oscar event two years ago and paid $50,000 in an auction to win two tickets to Vanity Fair’s famous Oscar party.
Other folks who know him say Mnuchin used to be a bit socially awkward, but now that he’s worth around $46 million, he’s much more popular than he used to be.
“He didn’t dive deeply into anything, but he was very critical of [Relativity CEO] Ryan [ Kavanaugh’s] ] spending,” a source said of Mnunchin’ss time at the company, which went through a bankruptcy process in 2015.
“He was very enveloped in Hollywood. He went to all the red carpet events,” he added.
Mnuchin’s lawyer didn’t return a call for comment.
CES grumbles es
Prospective Consumer Electronics Show attendeesees must really love punishment.ment.
Tooling around a Las Vegas egas convention center listeningng to awkward humans talk about how robots are going to put everybody out of work is our idea of hell.
But even those who livee for this stuff are carping about the change in show dates, which willl force them to pay more expensive weekend hotel rates.
Attendees will be trying to cram it all into two days, since CESS now runs Thursday, Jan. 5, to Sunday, Jan. 8. (Last year it started on a Wednesday.) esday.)
We tried The Venetian Hotel to check rates and were quotedoted $1,191.68 (that’s per night) — and only if you check in on Wednesday, Jan. 4.
You have to be a special brand of crazy to want to spend the first full weekend of the year in Vegas, but if you are going, you should know that tech adviser Shelly Palmer is offering toutours for both media and industrindustry. “This yearyear, CES is going to be challenging. A lot of people will cram three days of business into two. People want to go home on weekends,” Palmer told On the Money.
UK lloves Jack
Millennials taught us at last year’s holiday drinkfest sponsored by the Distilled Spirits Council, oror DDISCUS, that they prefer what Grandpa drank over what Our takeaway fromfrom last week’s bash is Brits feel the samesame wway. This is the year, after all, that Jack Daniel’s upset Famous Grouse Scotch to become the UK’s most popular whiskey brand. Not all of Britain agreed with the standings, despite their being published by The Grocer, an English trade magazine devoted to grocery The distribu-distributor of Grouse — still the UK’s leading Scotch, but former leading whiskey — complained that JD’s numbers include JD Tennessee Honey (technically not a whiskey) and some pre-mixed JD products. But a gegent from JD distiller Brown-Forman told our Richard Morgan the new data is unimpeachable. Brits really are downing more shots of whiskey than drams of Scotch, he said — then, in honor of JD’s 150th anniversary, hoisted a shot himself.