Latest in Kevin Mayer

Former Disney and TikTok executive Kevin Mayer invited the audience at today's RTS Convention in the UK to pitch names for his new, still untitled media company, which is backed by investment firm Blackstone. He might want to come up with one soon, as the outfit's high-profile acquisition drive, which has seen it…

Westbrook Studios, the Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith company behind Telluride Film Festival favorite King Richard and series Red Table Talk and Cobra Kai, has held exploratory talks with a number of potential buyers including the new venture led by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs and backed by the Blackstone…

If you want evidence that DAZN is a disruptor, you need only look at two big plays it has made in recent months. In March, the global sports streaming platform unseated Comcast-owned Sky as the home of Serie A soccer in Italy. A couple of months later, DAZN repeated the trick, outpunching Sky again to land a…

Entertainment finance firm Forest Road has launched its second SPAC with Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs as co-CEOs and co-chairs. Units of Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II started trading today on the New York Stock Exchange as the execs begin the search for a target company in the tech, media, telecommunications or…

Kevin Mayer, whose long tenure at Disney culminated in the successful launch of Disney+, is joining sports streaming outfit DAZN as chairman. He replaces former colleague John Skipper, the longtime former ESPN executive who steered DAZN through launches in the U.S. and other global territories. Backed by billionaire…

Began hearing this last week, but the drums are beating louder that Scooter Braun is in early discussions to sell his business, Ithaca, to former Disney and Tiktok honcho Kevin Mayer, who has backing through Blackstone. This is one of three offers being mulled. Braun is the record exec, manager of Ariana Grande…

Forest Road Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) backed by the eponymous entertainment finance firm with a Hollywood-heavy roster of advisors has found its target, announcing plans to buy digital fitness specialist Beachbody Company and take it public. The transaction involves a three-way…

UPDATED with name and details of new venture: John Skipper and Dan Le Batard, who were ESPN colleagues as network president and on-air talent, respectively, have formed Meadowlark Media. The content venture, supported by billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, “will emphasize a creator-centric point of view,&#8221…

Entertainment finance firm Forest Road and a team of A-list media insiders from Tom Staggs to Kevin Mayer have closed a $300 million IPO of a new SPAC – a special purpose acquisition vehicle they'll use to buy a private company in media, tech or telecom. SPACs, which are exploding, are basically empty publicly traded…

Kevin Mayer, who spearheaded Disney’s pivot to direct-to-consumer streaming and briefly served as TikTok’s CEO, has joined billionaire Len Blavatnik’s investment company Access Industries as a senior media adviser. Blavatnik has stakes in Warner Music Group, which recently had a successful IPO, as well as sports…

RedBird Capital Partners, the investment firm with stakes in David Ellison's Skydance Media and the YES Network, is opening a West Coast office in Los Angeles and has hired longtime top Goldman Sachs banker Andy Gordon to lead it. He starts in February as partner charged with extending the firm’s expertise in media…

There's a SPAC born every minute – today a new one called Forest Road Acquisition registered with the SEC to raise $250 million and hunt for media and entertainment deals with executives and advisors from former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer and former Walt Disney CFO Tom Staggs to basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal. SPACs…