Private equity firms are eager to unload the company.
Univision Communications' offices in Los Angeles were sold to raise money to pay down debt.
Interviews with nearly a dozen former and current executives depict a dysfunctional organization, hobbled by clashes between Latino managers and older white executives who worked at NBC in its glory days and seemed stuck in the past. They didn’t speak Spanish and were derisively called “gringos” behind their backs.
The four private equity firms each contributed about $900 million, making Univision one of Wall Street’s largest leveraged buyouts with more than $10 billion in debt.Univision’s owners immediately moved the headquarters from Los Angeles to New York — a Park Avenue address — and turned to a Madison Avenue veteran, Joe Uva, to run the company. The goal was to dramatically increase ad revenue by persuading marketers that Univision was a must-buy.
“They should have invested with co-production partners to create new programming so they would not have to rely so much on Televisa,” said Julio Rumbaut, a specialist in Latino media. “But they were fat and happy with Televisa, so they didn’t have a motive to change.” While Univision’s core audience was eroding, the company invested hundreds of millions in digital ventures to entice English-speaking millennials. It launched a high-profile venture with Disney called Fusion, which bombed, and Disney bailed. Univision launched another network, El Rey, and began buying digital properties, including the satirical website the Onion. The company spent $135 million in 2016 to buy Gawker Media Group, which it renamed Gizmodo.
“The people they brought in to run Univision didn’t know or understand Spanish-language media,” Rumbaut said. “You need that expertise, being truly immersed in the culture and the business.”
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