LeBron James is making more money moves than ever before. The Lakers superstar sealed an investment deal for his entertainment firm SpringHill Co with RedBird Capital in a move announced this morning.
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LeBron James and his partner-cum-CEO, Maverick Carter, remain in possession of a controlling stake. Carter is a high school friend of the Lakers star and has been associated with James throughout his career.
“We’ll be able to finance our own projects. We’re going to build up our physical production arm so we’ll be able to finance and control the production of the things we make. So when we talk about empowering creators, we can really leave creators in control,” said Carter.
The SpringHill Company was actually founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter in 2007 by the name SpringHill Entertainment. SpringHill is the firm behind LeBron’s barbershop show called The Shop and his 2021 release Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Serena Williams is also on the board of directors for this company, which was rebranded to The SpringHill Co in 2020.
How LeBron James sealed this round of investment for SpringHill Co
The company has been entertaining new investments since July since the release of Space Jam. They have acquired this $100 million injection of funds to power their own content production for the future.
“The goal is to create a multibillion-dollar diversified culture and content company, and I think that puts it in a pretty unique position,” said Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner at RedBird. “It’s not just capital; it’s listening to Maverick and LeBron in terms of what they want to build, where they’ve taken the company from a standing start to today, and then saying what the potential trajectory is.”
The SpringHill Company has sold a significant minority stake to a group of industry leaders:
➖ RedBird Capital
➖ Fenway Sports Group
➖ Nike
➖ Epic GamesThe investment values the company at $725M.
CEO Maverick Carter & Chairman LeBron James will keep a controlling stake. pic.twitter.com/t7dWAQ7P3o
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) October 14, 2021
RedBird Capital is a firm that has heavily invested in sports in the past. Their portfolio includes the Yankees’ television network (YES), XFL and Skydance Media among its big-hitters.
RedBird partnered with Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Nike and Epic Games for this investment round. LeBron and Maverick Carter were recently elevated to the ownership group within FSG.