Authentic Brands Group, which purchased SI last month from Meredith Corp. for $110M, has sold the magazine's "print and digital publishing rights to The Maven, a small publicly traded startup," according to Keith Kelly of the N.Y. POST. Authentic Brands and The Maven will be "partnering in building" the SI brand worldwide. Authentic Brands will "pay Maven a share of revenues relating to certain" SI business lines, such as commerce. Ross Levinsohn will be "joining The Maven as the CEO" of the SI media line. The Maven, which is "headed by digital entrepreneur Jim Heckman," last month "had been backing" former NBAer Junior Bridgeman’s bid to buy SI. However, The Maven "lost out on its chance to take over the whole operation when Bridgeman himself could not produce his portion of the financing to close to the deal." The Maven has prepaid $45M to Authentic Brands "against future royalties under a 10-year licensing agreement with guaranteed yearly minimum royalty payments, according to an SEC filing." Under last month’s deal, Meredith had agreed to pay Authentic Brands between $10-15M a year to "continue to operate the media side of the business" while Authentic brands pushed the publication "into a range of anticipated new business line using the valuable SI name." The latest deal "appears to negate that arrangement, but Meredith may still end up handling the printing and distribution of the magazine" (NYPOST.com, 6/17).
