The Athletic Co-Founders Explain Why They Sold Their Company for $550M

In an interview with CNBC, the first post-deal interview since co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann sold their company The Athletic, the two reveal why they made the move to sell.

Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann spoke to CNBC in their first interview since selling to The New York Times and revealed that being part of The New York Times’ bundle is key to the company’s future growth.

The total addressable market for subscription sports journalism is in ‘the tens of millions,’ said Mather.

The New York Times acquired digital sports journalism company The Athletic last month for $550 million. The duo built the subscription journalism product from scratch, selling it in one of the largest digital media exits of all time.

Sherman explained to CNBC why they sold, stating, “I want to start with a quote from you, Alex. This was late August 2020. At the time you told me, and here’s the quote, “We just don’t think about exit and we don’t know the upside here. There are very few companies doing what we’re doing. The New York Times is the tip of the spear, and they’re growing faster than ever. We don’t know what our ceiling is. When we feel like we know what our ceiling is, then it’s time for Adam and I to have a chat. But we have not come close to having a chat.”

Mather responded, “That was not the quote I was expecting, but it does sound like me. I think it’s a situation where we frankly got to know the folks at The New York Times. And like I said back in 2020, The New York Times is the tip of the spear in journalism and subscriptions and really rethinking that bundle. And we got to know them. It really got us excited about the opportunity of the Times being a permanent home for The Athletic. A standalone brand within an incredible essential bundle. And we saw that as an opportunity to really push our agenda further and faster.”

“This allows us to do what we can do best, which is sports writing, sports journalism, at an institution that is fully dedicated to that mission. We couldn’t be more proud of the landing spot for our employees. For the future of the company, we’re just incredibly excited. As things go, you adjust plans, and you think about where and how you can achieve the mission of the company when you started. The New York Times felt like that opportunity,” he added.

Mather also said he believes The Athletic will be worth multiple billions of dollars and the co-founders decided that the best way for them to achieve that was a part of The New York Times.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.