Sports Illustrated’s website briefly shut down amid rocky transition from Arena Group to Minute Media
NY Post
The migration of Sports Illustrated’s website from Arena Group’s control to the umbrella of Minute Media hit a rocky road on Thursday.
Minute Media acquired the licensing of SI’s editorial content from Authentic Brands Group (ABG) earlier this week after Arena Group, the company controlled by 5 Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava, had been embroiled in a battle with ABG over financial terms.
For a brief period on Thursday, the site was shut down.
In a statement to The Post, an Arena Group spokesperson said the company met with Minute Media on Wednesday and claimed that “Minute Media advised that, since they’re a tech company, they would only need an hour to take over the site. To help ensure the success of the transition, we provided them with 24 hours.”
However, a source with knowledge of Minute Media’s operations told The Post that the company had hoped for a significantly longer transition period between Arena Group and Minute so that the SI site could be migrated over to the latter’s platform.
Instead, there was no baton handoff at all, and Arena Group shut down the website on Thursday night, the source said.
