Jeff Zucker, RedBird Capital and Abu Dhabi’s IMI Formalize $1B Joint Venture for Media and Sports Investments

Former CNN and NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Zucker, private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments have formalized plans for a joint venture.

RedBird IMI, as the new company will be called, has $1 billion in dedicated funds focused on “large-scale” media and sports investment opportunities, the participants said.

Zucker becomes CEO of the company and joins RedBird as an operating partner. Founded by former Goldman Sachs banker Gerry Cardinale, RedBird recently teamed up with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for their new venture. It has stakes in both Skydance and the XFL, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia.

News of the sugar RedBird project first surfaced last month. Zucker left his post at WarnerMedia, where he oversaw sports and news, after revealing an amicable relationship with former colleague Allison Gollust. While many in CNN’s ranks have long known the couple was romantically involved, Zucker has also come under fire for former Primetime host Chris Cuomo’s actions as an adviser to his brother, former New York- Governor Andrew Cuomo magnifying glass.

Zucker joined CNN in 2013 and assumed oversight of Turner Sports in 2019. Prior to WarnerMedia, he had a 25-year career at NBCU, culminating in four years as CEO.

“For 35 years, I have led media companies at the intersection of news, sports and entertainment, creating new brands and revitalizing old ones,” Zucker said in a press release. “This experience has given me an unprecedented perspective for this unique time in media, and the combination of the capital and strategic discipline of RedBird and IMI, combined with my operational experience, will give this joint venture a unique advantage in today’s media landscape. give.”

IMI is a private Abu Dhabi-based company whose investment portfolio includes The National, Sky News Arabia, CNN Business Arabic and The Grid.

“The RedBird IMI joint venture came about at an important time as the media industry evolves in both content creation and distribution to meet the changing expectations of consumers worldwide,” said Nart Bouran, CEO of IMI. “We can achieve this by working with Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale
brings massive operational, investment and financial expertise to the table to be impactful and transformative
Investment in the media, entertainment and sports landscape.”

Cardinale said the new company is “a fully capitalized, long-term investment vehicle capable of owning and operating content-driven businesses across the media spectrum in the United States and globally.”

With Zucker on board as CEO, he added, RedBird IMI will “integrate significant operational expertise with advanced financial and investment acumen to deploy transformational capital at scale.”