Televisaunivision is going to have a new boss in the morning.
In a move that surprised some and seemed only a matter of time to others, Wade Davis is out as CEO and Daniel Alegre is taking over the Spanish-language media empire on September 19. The unveiling of the ex-Activision Blizzard president and COO as the new top dog at the company Davis created out of the 2022 merger of Univision and Mexico’s Grupo Televisa came late Wednesday mere hours after a New York Times article that the former Viacom CFO was in his last days running Televisaunivision.
After nearly four years since coming on board to lead Univision, Davis’s departure has been in the cards for a while with a variety of succession plans in the works. However, the process seems to have accelerated in recent weeks.
Still, while out as CEO, Davis will continue at the company as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors now and on the Board’s executive committee. The ongoing role for Davis comes as lower than anticipated revenues for Televisaunivision resulted in a loss of confidence in the executive from the company’s Mexican owners, two sources tell Deadline.
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“In 2020 Searchlight, ForgeLight and Liberty Global partnered with Grupo Televisa in our acquisition of Univision, setting out to turnaround and transform the legacy business,” Davis said in a statement Wednesday night. “The success of those efforts paved the way for the merger with Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – a business without comparison in the global media landscape today,” the exec noted.
“Thanks to the efforts of our exceptional team, TelevisaUnivision has consistently delivered above-market revenue growth, outperformed the U.S. and Mexican advertising markets and launched and have grown our direct-to-consumer business, ViX, to become the largest dedicated Spanish-language streaming service in the world,” Davis added. “We could not have picked a better successor than Daniel, who brings an incredible track record of operational and strategic execution. He is the ideal executive to take TelevisaUnivision into its next phase of growth,” the old CEO said of the new CEO, ex-Google exec and up until now CEO of of Yuga Labs. “The Company’s future is bright, and I look forward to supporting Daniel and the TelevisaUnivision team in my role as Vice Chairman of the Board.”
The recent announcement that long time news anchor Jorge Ramos would be leaving himself at the end of the year had nothing to do with that loss of confidence by fellow board members and moneymen, I hear. Having expressed his displeasure with some of the editorial choices the company made in interviewing Donald Trump and other moves, the ambitious and now CAA-repped Ramos upcoming departure of the Univision newsman had more to do with money and a new contract, not office politics.
In that context, the company is trying to project a business-as-usual stance to the literal overnight parachuting of Alegre into the CEO hot seat.
“On behalf of the Board, I’m excited to welcome Daniel to TelevisaUnivision as we embark on the next phase of our strategic journey focused on further integration and optimization,” said Alfonso de Angoitia, Executive Chairman of TelevisaUnivision tonight.
“It’s been a very dynamic media environment, and we are grateful for what Wade has accomplished in the turnaround of Univision and the subsequent transformative merger between Univision and Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company,” de Angoitia added.
“We are proud stewards of a storied and prolific content factory containing the largest Spanish language library of rich and iconic intellectual property,” he went on to say. “As we look to grow our unparalleled market position and the recent investments in our linear and streaming platforms as well as our news and sports products, Daniel is the right leader at the right time to take the helm. His unique global operational experience working in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America across technology, digital platforms and entertainment honed over three decades is exactly what TelevisaUnivision needs to drive our next phase.”
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