Lionsgate Names Longtime Media Exec, SPAC Expert Harry Sloan To Board

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Lionsgate has named longtime media executive, investor and successful SPAC specialist Harry Sloan to its board of directors effective immediately.

It said Sloan qualifies as an “independent” director of the company under the New York Stock Exchange listing standards. He has not yet been appointed to serve as a member of any Board committee. He replaces David Zaslav, who exited the board in May after the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger was announced.

It described its newest board member as “an experienced founder, public company chief executive officer and a leading investor in the media, entertainment and technology industries.” Since 2011, he has co-founded seven special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) with partners, including Jeff Sagansky and Eli Baker, raising over $4 billion in gross proceeds. All his SPACs have completed business combinations from sports betting giant DraftKings to mobile gaming company Skillz. Most recently, Sloane’s Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. raised $1.725 billion in its initial public offering in February and merged with Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, a biotechnology company.

The appointment comes as Lionsgate is exploring options for Starz. The company said on the last earnings call, when it broke the news about Starz, that it doesn’t feel it’s getting full value reflected in Lionsgate stock for the fast-growing premium pay TV and streaming platform. It said all options are on the table.

Sloan also was a founding investor and a former board member of Zenimax/Bethesda Game Studios, acquired by Microsoft in March 2021. He is on the board of directors and a member of the Audit Committee of Ginkgo, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors DraftKings, and member of the Board of Directors of Skillz.

Earlier in his career, Sloan ran MGM Studios and founded and led New World Entertainment and SBS Broadcasting.

Sloan, as did Zaslav, will serve as the designee of Discovery and Liberty Global under a Rights Agreement from 2015 when they invested in Lionsgate.