LeBron James And Maverick Carter Raise $100 Million For New Media Company SpringHill
LeBron James and Maverick Carter raised $100 million to create a new media company, SpringHill Co.
The company aims to create content "that will give a voice to creators and consumers who’ve been pandered to, ignored, or underserved," according to its Instagram account.
James and Carter started to build the company nearly five years ago and it has more than 100 employees, of which 64 percent are people of color and 40 percent are female.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the company consolidated James' marketing agency Robot Co. with SpringHill Entertainment and Uninterrupted LLC.
“When we talk about storytelling, we want to be able to hit home, to hit a lot of homes where they feel like they can be a part of that story," James told the magazine in February. "And they feel like, Oh, you know what? I can relate to that. It’s very organic to our upbringing.”
The announcement of James' new company comes amid nationwide unrest following the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by a white police officer on May 25. In the wake of Floyd's death, there have been worldwide protests against racism and police brutality and a heightened consciousness and awareness of racial injustices.
James also helped found a nonprofit organization named More Than A Vote earlier this month to help end Black voter suppression.
James named SpringHill Co. after the apartment complex in Akron, Ohio, that him and his mother Gloria moved to when he was in sixth grade, according to Bloomberg.
The company was launched on March 11 -- the same day NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic -- after it secured $100 million for a number of investors including Guggenheim Partners LLC, UC Investments, SC Holdings and News Corp. heir Elisabeth Murdoch, according to the magazine.
Among its current projects, the company is working with Netflix on a basketball-themed movie with Adam Sandler and it signed a TV production deal with Walt Disney Company.
