From one tycoon to another. After years Rupert Murdoch and his Sky lose the scepter of Italian football which passes to Dazn. The online streaming platform has been awarded the exclusive of Serie A (7 exclusively and 3 co-exclusive) for the 2021-2024 seasons and will have TIM as its strategic partner and Pay TV of reference for the offer of contents. An operation worth 840 million euros that follows the important investments of Dazn also in other countries with the ambitious goal of creating a sort of sports Netflix. The accounts for the moment do not add up with 1.4 billion losses in 2019.
The rise of Leonard Blavatnik from 1989 to today
But who is Mr Dazn? His name is Leonard Blavatnik, who was born in Ukraine 64 years ago and grew up near Moscow. After graduating from the Russian Capital State University, Blavatnik emigrated to the United States in 1978 when he was 21 to study computer science at Columbia University. He became a US citizen in 1984. Two years later, in 1986, he started his own investment company, Access Industries, and received an MBA from Harvard in 1989.
Blavatnik earned his first millions during the chaotic days following the breakup of the USSR in 1989. He takes part in the so-called war of aluminum and acquires the aluminum conglomerate together with former university mate Viktor Vekselberg Uc rusal, which after privatization will become the world‘s largest aluminum giant.
Another acquisition was oil company TNK, prior to its merger with British oil and gas conglomerate BP in 2003. A decade later, Russian state oil company Rosneft bought TNK-BP for $ 55 billion.
Business acumen with stakes in many successful techs
Len Blavatnik, who, according to Forbes, boasts a fortune of 30.7 billion dollars which makes him the 48th richest man in the world, was subsequently the protagonist of important acquisitions starting from the chemical company LyondellBasell in 2010, from media groups such as Perform Group and Rocket Internet and in 2011 bought Warner Music Group.
Leonard Blavatnik’s investment portfolio boasts stakes – through Access Technology Ventures – in tech companies such as Alibaba, Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify and Yelp. It also boasts a stake in Zalando.