New York Times to Buy The Athletic for $550M, According to Report
Thursday, January 06, 2022
The New York Times is reportedly buying the sports website The Athletic for $550 million.
The website in 2020 exceeded one million subscribers and lost a reported $41 million.
The addition of The Athletic launches the NYT into the top tier of media companies for sports coverage joining the likes of ESPN, CBS Sports and others.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The New York Times Co. has agreed to acquire subscription sports site The Athletic in a deal valued at around $550 million, according to a person familiar with the situation. The deal is a major acquisition for the Times, giving it a new pocket of subscription customers to the New York Times, which has set an ambitious goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by 2025. As of Sept 30, the Times reported 8.3 million digital and print subscribers,” according to The Information.
The Athletic had tapped a firm this past fall to find a purchaser. One report had that The Athletic was looking for $710 million in a sale.
This is not the first time the Times has made a big acquisition in order to gain more eyeballs.
In February of 2005, the Times purchased About.com for a reported $410 million.
The Times said when making the acquisition, “By adding About's 22 million monthly users to the Times Company's 13 million monthly users -- from The New York Times, The Boston Globe and more than 40 other Web sites -- the company said it would have the 12th-largest presence on the Internet.”
The About.com purchase was a bust and it sold the site for $270 million in 2012.
