Gol TV Deal Red-Carded
Dave Checketts’ SCP Worldwide Had Been Expected to Take 80% Stake in Cable Soccer Network
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 6/22/2007 12:43:00 PM
The proposed deal that would have seen Dave Checketts’ SCP Worldwide take a majority stake in soccer-centric Gol TV was offsides.
Gol TV chief operating officer Rodrigo Lombello and SCP executive Chris Bevilacqua said that while the framework for an agreement had been sculpted, the companies’ respective boards declined to finalize the deal over “a variety of issues.” The executives would not address whether the details involved financials or executive-leadership issues.
SCP was expected to take an 80% ownership stake in Gol TV for some $200 million.
Both Lombello and Bevilacqua emphasized that while the union was not consummated, the companies are continuing to work together, and they already paired on a project after the decision was made not to close the transaction: Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake, which is owned by SCP, appeared June 7 on Gol TV in a match against the Chinese national team.
“We talk more than once a week,” Lombello said. “There are a number of other possible things we can work together on.”
