The Players’ Tribune, the loss-making sports media company which features first-person content from athletes, has been acquired by Minute Media, “a global digital sports media company, powered by socially driven content created by the fans for the fans”.
Players Tribune, which provides “a home for athletes to share unfiltered, honest and unique perspectives to fans”, was founded by Derek Jeter, the former captain of the New York Yankees baseball team who will reportedly remain involved in the service.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but is assumed to involve equity. Completion is expected by the year-end.
Minute Media, which owns websites including Mental Floss, this year acquired sports site Big Lead from the news company Gannett. In June this year, it raised $40m in a funding round with new investors Hamilton Lane and Maor Investments. Previous investors included: Battery Ventures, Goldman Sachs, ProSieben, Dawn Capital, Qumra Capital, Vintage Investment Partners and Gemini Israel Ventures. The latest fundraising brought total funding to $120m. Its founder and CEO is Asaf Peled.
Minute Media claims to have an audience of 85m monthly uniques. and to have “created the industry’s leading digital publishing platform and uses this proprietary technology to power content and media solutions for its own properties… solutions to other leading publishers and digital brands”. Wall Street Journal has estimated that Minute Media has revenue of almost $100m but is not yet profitable.
