Before The New York Times agreed to pay $550 million to acquire The Athletic, other companies showed interest in the subscription sports site. Alex Sherman of CNBC says throughout 2021, multiple companies discussed buying The Athletic.
In March of 2021, The Athletic and Axios began talks to merge. When that fell through, Sherman writes that other suitors stepped up. Amazon, Conde Nast, and DraftKings were amongst the media suitors. Private equity firm TPG Capital showed interest as well.
Amazon reportedly had eyes on pairing The Athletic with its Thursday Night Football coverage. “Spokespeople at Amazon, Conde Nast and DraftKings didn’t respond to requests for comment,” Sherman writes.
TPG Capital was the most serious competitor to The Times. TPG also declined to comment, but Sherman reports that writers for The Athletic were worried about their jobs should a private equity firm buy the site.
Details of The New York Time’s take over have not been revealed, although it is expected that The Athletic will continue to function as an independent entity under the new ownership.
