Univision owners want to sell. After 12 years and $13 billion, what went wrong?
When Haim Saban and billionaire-led private equity firms acquired Univision Communications for $13.7 billion in early 2007, they figured the nation's largest Spanish-language media company would be a sure bet.
The U.S. economy and Latino population were booming. Advertisers were reaching out to Mexican immigrants who gravitated toward soccer matches and Univision's news and trademark telenovelas - the Mexican-produced Cinderella love stories that reminded viewers of home.
But the world changed.
After holding out for a big payday, Saban and his partners now are eager to sell the company - even at a discount, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly. Unloading what has become a fixer-upper for $8 billion to $10 billion would mark a rare blunder for the Los Angeles investor and his private equity partners. But years of boardroom bickering and missteps, including a disastrous foray into English-language media, as well as rising competition from rival Telemundo and shifting demographics,
