Blackstone eyes leading role in Disney India reel
Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, has initiated discussions with the Walt Disney Co to evaluate buying the media giant’s India streaming and television business, said people aware of the matter.
The senior India leadership of both companies have held multiple meetings in recent weeks. Blackstone is exploring either buying the business partially — a combination of assets including sports properties and media rights, and the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service — or the whole portfolio that also includes its linear TV franchise such as the flagship Star India TV network, OTT and a 30% stake in Tata Play (Tata Sky earlier), the people said.
It is widely believed that Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs — two former Disney executives who have been brought back this July by chief executive Bob Iger as advisers to help him navigate the company’s legacy television business and the ESPN sports network — have been the key catalysts to bring Blackstone to the discussion table.
After their earlier stints in Disney, Staggs and Mayer have been running Candle, a media group that they founded with backing from Blackstone.
Staggs, a former chief financial officer at Disney, had held multiple roles in the organisation, including as its chief operating officer and head of theme parks. Mayer, once seen as Iger’s likely successor, especially after the launch of Disney+, had worked closely with the CEO on a series of acquisitions and was a key architect of Disney’s streaming strategy.
