Major League Baseball Pondering Public Offering for Internet Unit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 24, 2004 - 5:19am.

New York -- Major League Baseball (MLB) is considering a public offering for its Internet streaming business that could potentially raise several hundred million dollars, people involved with the plan told The New York Times. The league's Major League Baseball Advanced Media unit has in recent years stepped up its offering of live and archived video and audio coverage of baseball games on the Internet. One analyst estimate valued the unit, which is owned equally by the 30 MLB teams, at $1 billion. Yesterday, MLB announced a two-year, $40 million deal with Microsoft to serve as its streaming partner to deliver games online. "The company has been successful sooner than anticipated and earned a profit a year earlier than we expected," MLB president Bob DuPuy told The Times. "But no decision [regarding a floatation] has been made, taken to the commissioner or taken to the clubs."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/sports/baseball/23SAND.html
http://www.mlb.com