Verizon eyes Disney
McAdam needs content to succeed: analyst
VERIZON Communications’ Lowell McAdam could be hiking the Sawtooth Mountains in Sun Valley next week, perhaps in search of his next deal now that the phone company closed its acquisition of Yahoo.
One rumor making the rounds last week was that Verizon may be eyeing a Disney purchase. While that sounds fantastical, a well-placed banker told On the Money not to count Verizon out.
“It feels like Verizon is playing checkers while AT&T is playing chess,” said one media observer, reflecting the view that Verizon needs more content assets to shore up its mobile ad ambitions.
Meanwhile, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who is bagging Time Warner, is also slated to attend Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley mogulfest, along with Time Warner’s CEO Jeff Bewkes and his three divisional chiefs: John Martin, Richard Plepler and Kevin Tsujihara.
The three amigos will be part of AT&T’s Dallas-headquartered telecom universe come fall. We’d love to hear if the gang goes whitewater rafting together in Sun Valley and what news they’ll discuss.
The high-octane deal-making powwow will be absent Disney CEO Bob Iger, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and former Uber chief Travis Kalanick.
They’re not on the attendee list, though they could always just show up. In the case of Kalanick, however, we hear the Allen & Co. hosts are very buttoned up and do not tolerate bad-boy behavior from those on the invite list — hence his absence.
There’s a sprinkling of businesswomen on the attendee list this year: Sara Blakely of Spanx (pictured), GM’s Mary Barra and IBM’s Virginia Rometty.
Could Barra be in the driver’s seat and headed to replace Kalanick at Uber? On the Money hears she is certainly a candidate. Tipsters also shared that ViaSat, a global broadband company that among other things is used to “empower international war fighters on the front lines of battle,” will be part of the new tech breed lined up to present.
Derek Jeter nancial backing to execute his bid for the Miamimi MarlinsMarlins baseball team, Onthe Money has learned.rned.
The Yankees legend has suffereded from rumors that his bid is weakk and doesn’t have enough fi-inancial clout to be taken seriously.y. But two of our tipsterssters say Jeter now has WallWall Street money lined up — though whether Major League Baseball sees him as a seriouserious “control guy” is anotherr question.
His group is bidding against two other groups,ups, neither of which has mett the $1.3 billion asking price, according cc or ding to the Miami Herald on Thursday.
Wehearthat the Marlins are set to lose around $80 million in 2017 and have hefty contracts that are due to rise significantly nifi cant lyi ninth ethe coming years.
Another groupup includes Wayne Rothbaumbaum and Tagg Romney, the son of ney, while Miami businessman Jorge Mas is the third bidder.
We hear Mass has the biggest firepower and is the most likely to win the bidding,ng, though thethe Her-Herald reports thatat the Jeter group is Marlins ownerr Jeffrey Loria vored pick. Loriaria is expected to make a decision by the end of the month. It’s not all gloomg and doom at department stores — at least not for Steve Madden. The accessoriesa designer is rising to the top of the shoe heap, selling moremore wwomen’s fashion sneakers than most of his competitors at NordstNordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor and Dillards this year, per a Wall Street analyst. “TheThey have a very unique testand-react model, which allows them to stay close to the trends,” CL KingKi & Associates analyst StevenSteve Marrotta told On the MoneMoney’s Lisa Fickenscher. Madden’sden’s “fashion is better and more in tune with what the customer wants.” CallCal it fast fashion without the rock-bottom prices. It’s gogoing to be hard to top the hilaritylarity at Vice CEO Shane Smith’s 2015 skewering,ske but we hope Cesar Conde will bring lots of laughs to this year’s light-hearted Center for Communications roast. CondConde, chairman of NBCUniversal’s international group and head of Telemundo Enterprises, will be honored with the Frank Stanton Excellencellence in Communications award. Telemundo is set to air the FIFAFIFA World Cup next year. LasLast year’s honoree was FX Networks chief John Landgraf. Message to Cen Com board members: It would be nice to have a woman candidate for next year? The lunch will be held at the PPierre Hotel on Nov. 2.