The Arena Group to Acquire AMG/Parade for $16M

The Arena Group, which runs Sports Illustrated, plans to acquire multimedia company AMG/Parade for $16 million, the company announced Tuesday.

AMG/Parade’s brands will add more sports and lifestyle coverage to The Arena Group’s existing portfolio. Athlon Media Group brings sports site Athlon Sports — which was already a Sports Illustrated Media Group partner.

SI Media Group includes the magazine and also sports blogs like The Spun.

In a 2021 Q3 earnings report, The Arena Group reported $59.6 million in revenue, up 86% from the same period in 2020.

A History with SI

The Arena Group was hired in 2019 (under its previous name Maven) to run SI for the magazine’s parent company, Authentic Brands Group, which was valued at $12.7 billion in November.

The AMG/Parade acquisition is the latest in The Arena Group’s self-proclaimed success story.

• It expects its numbers to reflect 41% growth in 2021 and annual revenue of more than $180 million.
• It reported record traffic numbers for SI Media Group in November, and was ranked by Comscore in the top five of sports properties (64.4 million unique visitors).

The Arena Group’s business moves have also been criticized for diluting the quality of Sports Illustrated’s journalism in favor of a model based on the number of page views. SI’s union has also posted testimonials suggesting internal turmoil.