Univision Holdings, the Spanish-language broadcaster and cable network owner, has put its planned initial public offering on hold, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Univision had planned to tap the public markets in early September, but held off in the wake of a huge decline in programing stocks spurred by declines in subscribers at Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN. The company, which owns 59 television stations, tow broadcast networks (Univision and UniMas) and cable networks like Galavision and El Rey, had planned to restart the offering later in the year.
But according to the Journal, at a regularly scheduled board meeting Thursday, the company decided to put off the IPO this year. The company kept the door open for an early 2016 offering, the paper said.
Cable network stocks were pounded in August after Disney said it had lost subscribers in the fiscal fourth quarter. While Disney did not give specifics, Nielsen estimates at the time put the losses at about 3 million subscribers. Last week in its 10-K annual report filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Disney confirmed those losses, stating that ESPN was available in 92 million homes, down from 95 million in fiscal 2014 and 99 million homes in fiscal 2013.
