LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The SpringHill Company has announced that RedBird Capital Partners, Fenway Sports Group, Nike, and Epic Games have acquired a significant minority stake, valuing the company at an estimated $725 million.
“SpringHill’s mission is empowering greatness in every individual,” said Carter, SpringHill’s CEO, in a press release shared Thursday. “We started this company with the tagline ‘More Than an Athlete’ which still defines everything we do to this very day. We are an incredible team of athletes, artists, writers, designers, musicians, and countless other creators.”
With this newly announced group of investors, Carter added, the SpringHill team will be able to “empower our community and every creator to do their most inspiring work and achieve their most ambitious dreams.”
As part of the deal, existing shareholder UC Investments will be increasing its investment, while Carter and James (who serves as chairman) will keep a controlling interest. The goals for each entity involved in the transaction are as follows: RedBird is providing SpringHill with flexible capital and resources, Fenway is helping further strengthen the company’s existing brand relationships while pushing for new opportunities, Nike is expand its existing partnership, and Epic is also developing an expansion of its respective partnership.
Gerry Cardinale, RedBird founder and current managing partner, touted Carter and James’ already “impressive” platform when laying out his personal hopes for this new chapter.
“Our partnership with SpringHill should enable us collectively to optimize that mission with scalable capital and a business building mentality that will continue to elevate more diverse voices and a drive towards greater empowerment,” Cardinale said.
