Jul. 6 at 4:38 PM
$RCI $RCI.B.TSX buys remaining 25% of MLSE from Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports for C
$4.35B, giving the telco total control of Canada’s sports empire
Transaction expected to close in 4Q26 & will require league approvals from the NHL, NBA, & MLSE - it intends to finance the transaction w/ its committed liquidity
By buying out Tanenbaum, Rogers plans to combine MLSE (Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC & Toronto Argonauts) w/ the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team & Sportsnet, the company’s national sports-media brand, into a single sports-and-media powerhouse
Last year, Rogers closed a separate
$4.7B deal w/ rival
$BCE to buy its 37.5%t stake in MLSE
The 2 companies had previously owned equal stakes in MLSE, while the remaining quarter was owned Kilmer Sports
The current deal w/ Kilmer implies a total value for MLSE of
$17.4B, a +39% increase from the
$12.5B valuation implied when Rogers announced the acquisition of BCE's stake
The media unit has been a major driver of rev growth for Rogers. In its most recent quarter ended March 31, its enlarged 75% stake in the MLSE contributed C
$988M—up +82% from the prior year & helping to lift the company’s total revs by +10% in the quarter
Part of the plan for MLSE has been for Rogers to sell a minority stake in the consolidated sports, media & entertainment business which it intends to do so over the course of the next year & to use the raised funds to pay down debt
Rogers also has strategic partnerships w/ the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, the NHL, the NBA, MLB & Live Nation
Rogers and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment are the only sports conglomerates that own 3 or more major sports teams after Fenway Sports Group sold the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. But unlike KSE, & FSG previously, Rogers’ assets are all concentrated in the same locale, which can offer added synergies in the 4th-largest city in North America but also controls Canada's No. 1 sports media brand
