Skydance Media has completed a $400 million strategic investment round led by private equity firm KKR & Co. to accelerate the growth of its sports and entertainment divisions.
The round, which values Skydance at more than $4 billion, included existing investors RedBird Capital Partners, Tencent, and the company’s majority shareholders, the Ellison family.
- In September 2021, Skydance launched its sports division.
- Skydance Sports produces content, including films and series, both scripted and unscripted.
- Tencent and RedBird will help Skydance drive growth in its sports strategy.
In January, Skydance Sports agreed to a co-production deal with Meadowlark Media — led by former ESPN president John Skipper — to deliver unscripted sports content.
The two companies will collaborate on a docuseries on the U.S. and Mexican men’s national soccer teams, as well as a project featuring hoops legend Diana Taurasi.
Skydance Sports teamed up with Religion of Sports in March to develop, finance, and produce sports content for multiple platforms including television and audio.
Earlier this month, Skydance Sports secured a multiyear first-look deal with international soccer star Kylian Mbappé and his production banner, Zebra Valley. As part of the deal, Zebra Valley will deliver its content through all of Skydance’s divisions.
Red-Hot RedBird
In May, RedBird finalized a deal to purchase AC Milan valuing the Italian soccer club at $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.
RedBird, which has $6 billion in assets under management, won its bid over Investcorp — the Middle East’s largest alternative assets manager.
