Sports Business

IPO laggards pay price for predecessors’ chutzpah

30 Mar 2021

Miner GV Gold, defence firm Leonardo DRS and soccer team Club Brugge shelved their listings. Investors have been stung by the poor performance of a wave of richly valued tech floats earlier this year. With the pipeline still full, hopeful issuers will now have to offer bargains.

Capital Calls: Elon Musk, AstraZeneca

15 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The electric-vehicle maker’s jocular new title of “Technoking of Tesla” tests the theory that deeds matter more than words; fears over the drugmaker’s vaccine risk further delaying the re-opening of Europe’s economy.

Capital Calls: McKinsey, Celebrity SPACs

10 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: McKinsey’s new boss isn’t new enough; the SEC tells investors to be careful of celebrities bearing SPACs.

Japan Inc faces Olympic sexism trial

24 Feb 2021

A woman replaced the games’ boss after chauvinist comments. His attitude is common; women make up 13% of directors at large listed companies. Tokyo’s bourse will push for better representation on its new “Prime Market”, but a thin pipeline of female managers risks tokenism.

Capital Calls: Super Bowl, Poison pills, Experian

8 Feb 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: America’s game doesn’t benefit from scarcity value; Cubic’s poison pill serves a purpose; And Brazil’s cyberattack has a price for Experian.

Corona Capital: Peloton, Star SPAC, Italian bank

5 Feb 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Peloton needs to keep pedaling faster to keep up its subscriber pace; baseball’s Alex Rodriguez is jumping in the special purpose acquisition company game; and Intesa Sanpaolo makes good on M&A.

Australia commits unforced tennis error

22 Jan 2021

Foreign players are flying in for the Grand Slam tournament even as strict pandemic policies have left citizens struggling to get home. Stars like Novak Djokovic complaining about quarantine don’t help. Flimsy economic considerations may be distorting risk assessments.

Corona Capital: Bank of America, Halliburton, NBA

19 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Bank of America’s animalistic analogies; Halliburton sees a recovery that can’t come soon enough; The New York Knicks’ valuation has its top spot to lose.

Corona Capital: Inflation, Poshmark

14 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Breakingviews panel predicts the end of the free-money era; and Poshmark’s IPO looks overdressed.

Corona Capital: KKR/music, IMF

11 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Private equity giant KKR buys a stake in hip OneRepublic music royalties; and the International Monetary Fund half-heartedly bumps up its target lending cushion.

European soccer will try on American-style pay cap

24 Dec 2020

Empty stadia wiped out nearly $4 bln in sales, pushing even rich clubs like Manchester United and Barcelona into the red. A partial return for fans barely eases the pain. To save itself, the beautiful game will have to import the U.S. National Football League’s limit on salaries.

Viewsroom: Predictions and prescriptions (Part 1)

23 Dec 2020

Governments will become activist investors; U.S. airlines will merge; data centres will be the new ESG target; energy giants to consider renewable spinoffs; Tesla will buy Daimler; European soccer gets more American and more. Rob Cox, Peter Thal Larsen and Lauren Silva weigh in.

Corona Capital: Tesla’s Apple snub

23 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Tesla boss Elon Musk asked to meet with Apple back in the day, and got rebuffed. Musk’s company has been the better investment recently, especially during the Covid-19 period. That doesn’t mean Tim Cook missed out.

Corona Capital: NFL’s ad fumble

14 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: This year fewer people are watching the National Football League, and that means broadcasters like Comcast’s NBC are lowering prices for commercials or offering free ad space.

Corona Capital: Record Dow, Basketball, GoCompare

25 Nov 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Vaccine optimism shunts the blue-chip Dow Jones index through 30,000; U.S. college basketball gets back on the court; and UK publisher Future snaps up the bargain-hunting website.

Corona Capital: Utah Jazz, Comcast, Kraft

29 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Utah Jazz’s owners sign off with a respectable return; Comcast shoots the light out on broadband; and Kraft rides the stay-at-home wave.

Corona Capital: Drugmaker’s pick-me-up, Golf M&A

28 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Drugmaker GSK sees a recovery in vaccinations against old-school ailments; meanwhile Covid-19 turns out to be a handy driver when it comes to golf-related dealmaking.

Corona Capital: U.S. tests, UK loans, Man U groans

21 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Abbott Laboratories has a bumper third quarter; UK banks look at a workaround for their Covid-19 loan problem; and Manchester United reveals a predictably ropey set of annual results.

Elite Euro-soccer league is an ill-timed challenge

21 Oct 2020

JPMorgan may lend $6 bln to launch a new top-tier competition, Sky News said. Frequent mega-matches like Liverpool vs. Barcelona could boost revenue, yet it’s unclear who’d buy the pricier broadcast rights. And discarding virus-hit smaller clubs would have a political cost.

Moneyball SPAC could turn bats and balls into gold

13 Oct 2020

The Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC owner may go public through a blank check company co-chaired by data-driven baseball executive Billy Beane. Based on UK valuations, the deal is on steroids. But Beane may have found public market arbitrage to help him roll up sports leagues.