LL Cool J and Ice Cube have teamed up to bid on 22 newly available sports TV channels. Disney took ownership of the channels in a $71.3 billion acquisition with 21rst Century Fox a while back.
But since Disney already owns ESPN, the justice department said they’d be forming a near monopoly in the sports television space, so Disney was forced to sell all of the channels.
The long list includes Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports San Diego and the New York based YES Network, which the Wall Street Journal values between $5-6 million. The deal in its entirety, for all the stations are worth a reported $15 to $25 billion.
The rappers will certainly face heavy competition in the bidding, but they’ll be joined by billionaire Carolyn Rafaelian, the founder of Alex and Ani jewelry. A few big sports figures are also supposed to join the group but those names haven’t been revealed.
This will be the third time Cube and Rafaelian have paired together since Alex and Ani designed the championship rings for two seasons of Cube’s BIG3 Basketball League. She recently expressed her excitement about the upcoming bidding and working with the rapper.
“Collaborating with Cube on BIG3 was exhilarating, and we both share a beautiful vision of where the world is headed, and we want to be part of that evolution,” she said in a statement.
The first round of bidding is on Nov. 8 and the rappers will be facing other powerful groups including Sinclair Broadcast, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group.
