Brands
Russell Wolff is ESPN Intl executive VP, MD
MUMBAI: Russell Wolff has been promoted to ESPN International executive VP and MD.
The announcement was made by ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer.
Wolff will continue to oversee all of ESPN’s businesses outside the US. These include television, radio, print, internet, wireless, consumer products, and event management. He and his team from ESPN International will work closely with ESPN’s domestic groups to grow the ESPN brand abroad by launching new businesses and expanding existing franchises.
Under Wolff’s stewardship, ESPN International has evolved to include ownership, in whole or in part, of 30 television networks, as well as radio and internet businesses, which together extend the ESPN brand to more than 190 countries and territories. In addition, ESPN’s flagship programme SportsCenter has been developed into a franchise that now includes local editions for viewers in India, Canada, Brazil among other countries.
Recently, Wolff oversaw the launch of a variety of ancillary international businesses including ESPN The Magazine in China, ESPN and X Games-branded consumer products in Japan, and X Games events in Latin America and Asia
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
