Silva International Investments and SportBusiness Group are delighted to announce that the process of SBA Limited acquiring SportBusiness Group has now closed. SBA Limited, managed by Silva International Investments, becomes the parent company of SportBusiness Group with immediate effect.
Established in 1996, SportBusiness Group is one of the world’s leading providers of timely, accurate, authoritative data and high-value insight, supplying hundreds of businesses working in sport around the globe. It has established a reputation as a market leader for business-critical intelligence and independent analysis. SportBusiness is already a strongly performing business with significant brand reach and an audience of 130,000 reached each month through email and social media channels.
Under the new ownership structure, further investment in increasing the quality of content, data and technology will provide SportBusiness Group with an even broader platform for growth and success, both in existing services and new areas.
Commenting on the acquisition, Silva International Investments CEO Marco Auletta said: “This is a great deal for both SportBusiness Group and Silva International Investments. We are confident that we will be able to support SportBusiness Group in maintaining high quality standards and editorial independence as it seeks to strengthen and increase its growth. SportBusiness Group has established a reputation for the quality of its independent market intelligence, consulting expertise and journalistic content, and this is testament to the capability of its staff, at all levels.”
On behalf of SportBusiness Group, CEO Ben Speight said: “In the last few years, the company has successfully completed a transition from being reliant on advertising funding to being built on customers subscribing to business-critical information in the form of high quality, exclusive data and independent analysis. We have enjoyed significant growth by realigning the business in this way and we have a clear roadmap of how we can provide further value to our customers by developing our existing products and pushing into new areas. Therefore, to have this new investment is timely and hugely exciting for us. Moreover, it is a massive endorsement of the work we have done so far to receive the backing from new owners who have such a strong knowledge of the industry.
“We are delighted to have found a partner that believes in the value of our products, and that understands and is pledged to protect our independent journalism and analysis. Together, we believe we can create a bigger, broader, richer, more compelling service that customers will love, and that will help them build better-informed, more competitive, and more successful sports businesses.”
For further information please contact Tony Pilch, Chief Communications Officer at Silva International Investments, at: pilch@silvainternational.com or +44 734 288 5618
About SBA Limited
Sport Business Acquisitions Limited (SBA Limited) is a newly incorporated company for the entire issued share capital of Electric Word PLC and is owned and controlled by shareholders Riccardo Silva and Marco Auletta.
About Silva International Investments
Silva International Investments is an investment company which manages assets across multiple sectors including media, sport, entertainment, fashion, technology and real estate.
ENDS
4 August 2017
