Are Irving Azoff & James Dolan Trying To Buy Rolling Stone?
Last month we learned that music magazine Rolling Stone was for sale. Now we're learning who was and apparently is still trying to buy iconic title including uber-manager Irving Azoff, whose Oak View Group recently acquired touring trades Pollstar and Venues Today.
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By Dave Brooks of Amplify
Buried in a Page Six story today about an attempt by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to buy Rolling Stone was a revelation that Azoff MSG Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff and MSG chairman James Dolan had also made a $30-million bid for the iconic rock title.
While the news didn’t indicate any connection to the Oak View Group — the consortium owned by Azoff, Dolan and Tim Leiweke which recently purchased Pollstar and Venues Today — it’s an interesting development for Rolling Stone. According to Page Six, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, Variety owner Jay Penske and American Media’s David Pecker have all made bids for the title launched in 1967 by Jann Wenner.
Wenner announced he was putting it up for sale last month after his son Gus Wenner, 27, succeeded him as president/COO.
“Wenner’s already sold a 49-percent stake in the mag to BandLab for a reported $40 million and sources say that bids for the controlling interest were due on Thursday for between $20 million and $40 million,” according to Page Six.
Weinstein’s bid for the magazine was dropped after reports surfaced that the producer and movie mogul had either sexually harassed or sexually assaulted nearly 60 women, many of them now Hollywood stars.
FOR SALE: Rolling Stone Magazine
