The historic baseball team of the New York Yankees and the private equity fund Main Street Advisors will enter the new capital of Milan together with the RedBird fund. It reveals the Financial Times according to which the Yankees, who have belonged to the Steinbrenner family since 73, and the Los Angeles fund will be among Milan's investors in the 1,2 billion deal which should close next week.
But there's more, because the NBA star is among the Main Street Advisors investors LeBron James, rapper Drake and music producer Jimmy Iovine (producer of U2 and Steve Jobs' right-hand man when Apple launched iTunes).
Also according to the Financial Times, RedBird will announce the entry of its new partners as early as Wednesday, the day on which will officially take control of the club, previously owned by US hedge fund Elliott Management.
The deal, followed by RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale, is further testament to theinterest of American investors for Italian football and, in particular, for Serie A teams. The Yankees, together with the City Football Group of Manchester, control the New York City FC franchise of the US Major League Soccer.
According to the financial newspaper, the Yankees will work closely with Milan, since Cardinale's goal is to increase the club's revenues, as well as successes on the field.
In the context of the collaboration it would not be excluded the broadcasting of AC Milan matches on Yes Network, a regional sports channel controlled by a consortium of Yankees, Amazon, RedBird and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Also according to the newspaper, LeBron James, Iovine and Drake would be passive investors through the fund and would not directly have shares in the club.
