Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily » UPDATE: Reality TV Sale Price $500 Mil? Mark Burnett “Seriously” Talking To IMG; Already IMG Execs Fawning All Over Him

June 30th, 2008 | by cwalton |
Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily » UPDATE: Reality TV Sale Price $500 Mil? Mark Burnett “Seriously” Talking To IMG; Already IMG Execs Fawning All Over Him

71DF07B0-754A-4B66-B448-16C9C1ADA8E2.jpg
UPDATE: Reality TV Sale Price $500 Mil? Mark Burnett “Seriously” Talking To IMG; Already IMG Execs Fawning All Over Him

FRIDAY UPDATE: I just heard from a knowledgeable source that the Mark Burnett-IMG deal may be as rich as $500 million — $250M upfront, the rest earned out…

EXCLUSIVE: I chased a rumor from a month ago that Mark Burnett might be starting his own network. Now I’ve learned what the already rich reality TV czar (Survivor, The Apprentice, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?) is really up to: making even more moolah. An insider tells me Burnett is negotiating to sell his company to the entertainment and sports management and production behemoth IMG and come on board. I understand Burnett is “in very serious conversation” with IMG chairman Teddy Forstmann, whose Wall Street private equity firm Forstmann Little back in 2004 acquired IMG which was founded by his legendary friend Mark McCormack. Forstmann keeps looking for Tinseltown deals so when the LBO prince was spotted having lunch in as public a venue as NYC’s Michael’s a month ago, it sparked that rumor about Burnett starting his own network. Plus, remember that last September Teddy brought HBO’s fired Chris Albrecht to IMG as the president of global media and IMG entertainment, made him a special limited partner in Forstmann Little, and gave him a $250 million fund for showbiz content investments. It’ll be interesting to see how much bigger Burnett’s deal will be.

Read the entire article at Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily » UPDATE: Reality TV Sale Price $500 Mil? Mark Burnett “Seriously” Talking To IMG; Already IMG Execs Fawning All Over Him.

  Tags: , , ,

You must Log In to post a comment. You must Register before you can log in.

Click Here To Log In.

To Register, just put in the username you want to use and your email address. We'll assign a random password and email you a link to activate your log in. Click on the link and you're in! (You can change your password to anything you want, after you've logged in.)

Click Here To Register.