CBS Sports Digital and subsidiary 247 Sports yesterday prevailed in a bankruptcy auction for the assets of Scout Media Inc. CBS last month entered a stalking horse bid of $9.5M, and after a delay in the auction from last Friday, no other formal bids emerged in accordance with the bankruptcy court’s schedule. The Maven Network, a digital media operation formed recently by former Scout Media CEO James Heckman, yesterday afternoon sought court approval for more time to develop a rival bid for the company, but was denied. Heckman last summer was fired from the company prior to starting the new venture. Scout Media will now be folded into the CBS Sports Digital umbrella with assets such as 247 Sports, MaxPreps and its suite of fantasy games, but still run as a distinct unit. Its day-to-day operations will be led by 247 Sports Founder & CEO Shannon Terry. The acquisition is required to close by Monday. “This is a tremendous asset we believe we can fix,” Terry said of Scout Media. “There is a outstanding network of team site publishers we’ve acquired, one that doesn’t really overlap with 247, but it wasn’t really noticed because it was such a bad business. But to us, this is a diamond in the rough.” The Scout Media brand name will be retained. Though company officials did not disclose specific employee plans, it is expected most of the Scout Media staff, particularly the individual site publishers, will also remain under the new ownership. The Scout Media acquisition adds to a period of growth for CBS Sports Digital over the past year in which it set several company traffic and audience records, and last fall posted three consecutive second-place finishes in monthly ComScore rankings. “These assets fit into our portfolio perfectly, and we intend to help accelerate growth for Scout just like we did for 247,” said CBS Sports Digital Senior VP & GM Jeff Gerttula.
MLBAM FILES OBJECTION: Prior to the conclusion of the Scout Media auction, MLBAM filed a limited objection in the case seeking to protect various intellectual property and domain name rights. MLBAM and Scout Media previously had a marketing and promotional partnership, and baseball’s digital arm said in the filing that Scout Media owed it more than $1M in unpaid rights fees and royalties.
