The NFL, NFLPA and MLB have all "purchased equity stakes" online retailer Fanatics, which has "grown to become one of the largest licensees of each league," according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Sources said that NFL owners at their meeting in March "authorized the purchase" of a 3% equity stake in Fanatics for $95M. A 3% stake at $95M would give Fanatics a valuation of $3.17B, more than" twice its revenue and easily making it the biggest 'pure play' in sports licensing." The NFL was told in a presentation that MLB had "already made its own Fanatics investment" -- $50M -- for "around half the amount of equity eventually purchased by the NFL." Sources said that the NFLPA also invested $5M in Fanatics, receiving less than a 1% stake. That the NFL and MLB would "purchase equity stakes can only be seen as an emphatic endorsement of the business model that has helped the privately held Fanatics quintuple revenue" since '10, reaching $1.4B last year (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/8 issue).
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