SpringHill, a new media company co-founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, raised $100 million from Guggenheim Partners, UC Investments, Elisabeth Murdoch, and SC.Holdings.
Why it matters: James is viewed as the entrepreneurial role model by many of his NBA peers, helping spark league-wide interest in investing and starting new businesses.
- Flashback: In 2016 I spoke with Carter about his media ambitions, during a Fortune conference panel that also included Draymond Green and then-Warner Bros Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara. Video here.
- The bottom line: "SpringHill is named for the Akron apartment complex where James and his mom moved when he was in sixth grade. It consolidates the Robot Co. marketing agency with two other businesses. The first, SpringHill Entertainment, is behind [NBC game show] The Wall and the movie Space Jam: A New Legacy. The second, Uninterrupted LLC, produces [HBO talk show] The Shop as well as Kneading Dough, an online partnership with JPMorgan Chase in which athletes talk about money to promote financial literacy." — Jason Kelly, Bloomberg Businessweek
