I guess people just aren't buying what LeBron is selling.
SpringHill Company, the entertainment group started by woke basketball star LeBron James, with woke tennis star Serena Williams on the board, lost $28 million last year.
What's more, the media company, which has launched a variety of sports related content for Disney+, Paramount+, Netflix, CNN, and even given us a new Space Jam movie, is completely unprofitable.
The company lost $28 million on sales of $104 million last year, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News. SpringHill lost $17 million in 2022 and is on pace to lose millions more in 2024.
And, according to Bloomberg, James' foray into the world of entertainment is actually very successful given other failed celebrity media launches. Some people actually watch LeBron's shows and movies. However, they're still losing money.
SpringHill succeeded where many other celebrity-backed ventures did not. While James is the company's chairman, most of what they produce doesn't involve him being in front of the camera. Save for the occasional appearance on The Shop, or a starring role in basketball-themed projects like Space Jam and the Netflix docuseries Starting 5, James is still focused on playing ball. [SpringHill Chief Executive Officer Maverick] Carter has earned the respect of the business community and sits on the board of concert giant Live Nation.
'We built this business with LeBron, not around him,' Carter said, adding that James 'remains deeply engaged in driving the vision and mission he helped shape, focusing more actively on certain passion projects.'
If this project is a success I'd hate to see how much money the failures are losing.
James has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his media company in the past 5 years, and he's producing quite a bit of content that is being gobbled up in the streaming market. But investors are having to keep the business afloat as they lose money year after year.
SpringHill, which grew to 200 employees, raised money at the top of the market for production companies, back when streaming services were adding billions of dollars to their budgets each year to chase new customers. Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine was acquired in a deal that valued the business at about $900 million.
Yet as the market crashed, those lofty valuations started to look excessive. Hello Sunshine has fallen far short of profit forecasts. As part of the deal with Fulwell, SpringHill investors will put a further $40 million into the business.
My only question is, "why?" Why are people still investing millions into a project that doesn't do anything but lose money year after year? What are they receiving in return for their investment, other than being associated with LeBron James?
