Authentic Brands Group mulling $110M bid for Sports Illustrated

Authentic Brands Group — owner of a global portfolio of entertainment and lifestyle brands — has emerged as a new potential suitor for Sports Illustrated, with one report saying that the company is mulling a $110 million bid to Meredith for the storied brand.

Former NBA star turned fast-food mogul Junior Bridgeman, who is said to have finally lined up financing, is still pegged as the front-runner for the moment, sources tell Media Ink.

One source close to the situation suggested that Authentic Brands Chairman Jamie Salter is a late arrival to a selloff process, which has been underway for over a year.

“It’s early days,” said one source close to Authentic Brands. The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that Authentic had emerged as “a leading contender” to acquire the now every-other-week magazine, whose most famous issue is the annual swimsuit edition — destined to hit next month.

Meredith and Authentic Brands declined to comment.

“Bridgeman is in the lead,” insisted one source close to the former Milwaukee Bucks star.

Bridgeman could not be reached. He is the owner of the Heartland Coca-Cola Co. and recently teamed with Canadian billionaire Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Group to buy Coca-Cola Canada Bottling.

At the start of the sell-off process back in March 2018, Meredith was hoping to get $200 million. Most media observers regarded that as unrealistically high, but then Meredith sold Time magazine to Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190 million in November and Fortune went to Thai business giant Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million.

Meredith, which picked up the four titles as part of its $2.8 billion deal for Time Inc. in January 2018, told investors in February that it hoped to have a tentative deal in place for SI by the end of its fiscal year in June.