Miami-based Hemisphere Media Group Inc., a Spanish-language media company, and private-equity firm Platinum Equity have both made deal overtures to Univision, some of the people said.
Wade Davis, a veteran media executive and the former chief financial officer of Viacom Inc., is advancing a separate bid for Univision backed by third-party financing, some of the people said. Under that scenario, Mr. Davis would be expected to take over as chief executive of the company, they said.
Financial terms of any potential deal couldn’t be learned. The sale process, which began earlier this year, isn’t in its final stages and it is possible a deal may not materialize, the people said.
Univision was the uncontested leader in Spanish-language TV programming in the U.S. when it was taken private in 2007 by a group of investment firms in a deal worth $13.7 billion including debt—which remains among the largest leveraged buyouts of a media company.
A formidable challenger emerged soon afterward in Telemundo, a unit of Comcast Corp. ’s NBCUniversal, which gained ground with edgy soap operas about Mexican drug lords—aimed at a new generation of bilingual Latinos.
Like other traditional broadcasters, Univision also has suffered audience erosion due to the rise of cord-cutting. The company tried to diversify its audience by buying English-language websites that appeal to younger, bilingual Hispanic-Americans, but that effort proved short-lived and unprofitable.
The company’s owners—which include billionaire Haim Saban’s Saban Capital Group and private-equity firms Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, TPG and Thomas H. Lee Partners—have been seeking an exit for years, a search that included stymied attempts to take the company public.
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