Yahoo Finance Bob Iger and Willow Bay in Talks to Buy Majority Stake in Angel City Soccer Club
Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, are in talks to buy a majority stake in Angel City FC, the professional women’s soccer club based in Los Angeles, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.
Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, has previously been the largest shareholder of the team. If the investment from Bay and Iger finalizes, the team will have a valuation of more than $300 million, per Semafor, making it the highest valued women’s soccer club.
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Bay, who is the dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is said to be taking the lead on the investment.
The women’s soccer club was launched in 2020 by Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, with a number of notable celebrity investors including Ohanian’s wife, Serena Williams, as well as America Ferrera, Jessica Chastain, Christina Aguilera, Billie Jean King, Jennifer Garner, Eva Longoria and Gabrielle Union.
The team has prioritized having majority female ownership, with a greater push for gender and pay equity in women’s sports. That’s also included a profit sharing model in which participating players share in 1 percent of the net ticketing revenue, in exchange for using their name, likeness and social media channels to support marketing initiatives.
“We wanted to build Angel City, first and foremost, to be a global brand, to drive attention and awareness for our ultimate goal, which is to drive real equity and pay equity for these women and using sport and Angel City Football Club as a lens with which to have these conversations to bend that curve,” Uhrman told THR in August 2023.
The club was also the focus of a three-part documentary series on Max, titled Angel City.
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