In a sudden leadership shakeup, Wade Davis, a former Viacom CFO who led the acquisition of Univision, taking over as its CEO in 2020, and a year later orchestrating the $4.8 billon-dollar merger with Televisa, is exiting the company’s top job.
Late Wednesday night, hours after the New York Times reported TelevisaUnivision’s plan to remove Davis from the CEO role and replace him with media executive Daniel Alegre, the company issued a press release announcing the change “as part of the Board of Directors’ long-term succession planning process.”
The succession will be quick. Alegre becomes CEO of Televisa, effective September 19.
The TelevisaUnivision release also stated that Davis “will transition to the role of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and continue as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee.”
Alegre was most recently CEO of Yuga Labs, a web3 company. He was previously President and COO of Activision Blizzard, overseeing international gaming studios and the commercialization of franchises of the company’s renowned video games.
Before that, he spent 16 years at Google, where he held various executive positions, including President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, President of Shopping and Payments and President of Asia Pacific and Latin America. He also opened Google offices throughout Latin America and Asia.
Alegre also worked as managing director of BMG Music’s Central American Operations in the late 1990s.
In a statement, TelevisaUnivision’s Executive Chairman Alfonso de Angoitia thanked Davis for “the turnaround of Univision and the subsequent transformative merger between Univision and Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision,” and that as the company looked to expand its linear and streaming growth, Alegre’s “global operational experience working in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America across technology, digital platforms and entertainment honed over three decades is exactly what TelevisaUnivision needs to drive our next phase.”
According to the NYT, inside sources shared that TelevisaUnivision has faced challenges increasing profits under Davis since the merger, missing several internal budget goals, and is unlikely to reach its financial target for this year.
You can read additional details on Forbes.
Oh Wade Wade, una guerra que no ibas a ganar nunca bro.
Pobre de nosotros mas bien, con lo que nos espera aqui.
Ni amanecerá, ni veremos.
And based on what we saw and heard this afternoon from his presentation, darker times coming for all of us in the Company.
So many have tried, so many have failed. When will Spanish TV owners realize all they need to do is use Ray Rodriguez playbook to be successful.
Simple
Cdad de Mexico Honchos deeply dislike the Miami thing, is almost hateful. I see it here every day.
Spanish TV in the U.S. suffers from a cancer called Miami…