Madison Square Garden (MSG) Receives Bids For Fuse TV
Multiple Bidders Emerge for Madison Square Garden’s (MSG) Fuse TV Network
Less than two weeks after receiving a $200 million bid for their Fuse TV Network from both Diddy and Jennifer Lopez, Madison Square Garden (MSG) has reportedly received a $350 million cash offer from Artist Series Inc. Relatively unknown, Artist Series is in the process of securing financing for both the transaction and an additional $200 million for operating costs. Management has yet to respond to any of the bids they have received thus far. When we first recommended purchasing shares of MSG in October, we noted that J.P. Morgan was in the process of shopping Fuse TV around. At the time we expected Fuse would fetch anywhere from $300 – $400 million in a sale, right in line with the offer from Artist Series. With three parties expressing interest in such a short period of time, we could see an upward revision to the current bid. Madison Square Garden’s stock has been extremely range bound since our recommendation. A sale of Fuse TV coupled with the recent hiring of Phil Jackson as President of Basketball Operations could help awaken shares of MSG and get them moving towards fair value. I continue to view Madison Square Garden as a strong buy.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.