MiddleEasy's Elena Lopez tracked down Paul Feller, CEO of Stratus Media Group, the company that assumed control of ProElite, Inc. this week, to see what his plans are for the newly acquired franchise.
Elena Lopez: Why the acquisition? What value do you see in the ProElite franchise?
Paul Feller: "Well we see a lot of value in the acquisition. We think it's a space that has a lot of upside potential. It's a growing market, one of the fastest growing sports on a global basis -- both television and on-side attendance wise. We thought it had a very specific demographic profile that we wanted to invest and build into. We have a well-established name worldwide, they have a wonderful library of previous events and we're looking to take that branding and that history, and rebuild the brand as a major player and we're looking to fill the number two spot that Strikeforce once held."
EL: You're a public company which means that you will have to fully disclose what's in the books, yet you will be competing with a private company that aren't necessarily forced to adhere to those guidelines. What are your plans for this?
PF: "Well I can't really comment who we're competing against. I can comment on our company which we're an aboveboard, publicly reporting company. We have multiple events, not just in the MMA space, but music festivals, concerts, film festivals, autoracing, autosports -- and we're going to extrapolate the benefits of media and sponsorship from all of our different properties and cross-pollinate them across all of our brands and all of our events including ProElite. That means leveraging our television relationships, our sponsorships and our merchandising partners. We have considerable resources to go into this and better the chances and the odds to make ProElite a large success. But I'm not in the position to make comments on what other companies are doing or not doing, that's not our place."
EL: It appears that you are trying to deliver a large block of stock to your new investment group. How are you planning on issuing these shares?
PF: "We're not in position to state that. Right now we've taken over 95% control interest in the company. We are financially invested in the company and when we're ready to make announcements then we'll do it at that time. We are a publicly reporting company and whatever we disclose we have to do it on a public nature and at this point we're not ready to disclose what this strategy is."
EL: What assets does ProElite own that make the Stratus Media Group see value in investing in a defunct business as opposed to starting a new one?
PF: "Well there's a number of them. There's a large library. There's the intellectual property value. There's the historic staff knowledge, fighter relationships and the equity in the brand awareness which is world-wide."
EL: What are your intentions with the new company? Who is your competition?
PF: "Well I think the obvious ones are, of course, Strikeforce and Bellator, I think everyone is waiting to see what they're going to do. But at the end of the day, I think our competition is yet to be determined to see who's going to fill that second-tier position that Strikeforce was doing quite a good job filling with a lot of our old fighters and our TV deal, so it's yet to be determined. I don't think there is anyone that's a major contender to the spot we're looking to fill. We certainly intend to be one of them, if not 'it'."
EL: There aren't a lot of free agents available in MMA, how would you facilitate a healthy roster in ProElite?
PF: "Oh, I think that there is a tremendous amount of free agents and I think everyday it's growing. A number of major fighters are coming out the woodworks and I think, with anything in business, build a better mousetrap, offer a better service we will fill our own destiny to get top-ranked fighters in and we already are in major communications to get a number of them. So I don't see that being a hindrance or a barrier to anything."
No comments:
Post a Comment