Barcelona have sold 25 percent of Barca Studios, which manage the club’s digital business and audiovisual productions, to Socios.com for 100 million euros ($102.5 million), club president Joan Laporta said on Monday.
Club members had agreed to the sale of 49 percent of the shares.
“Right now we’ve sold 25 percent to Socios.com,” Laporta said at the press conference to introduce Jules Kounde, who was reportedly bought from Sevilla for €50m, as a Barcelona player.
Earlier this summer, the heavily indebted club sold 15 percent of its La Liga TV earnings in two tranches, or a total of €400m, to American investment fund Sixth Street before embarking on a transfer spree.
In addition to Kounde, Barcelona have bought Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich and Raphinha from Leeds, and have signed AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie and Denmark centre-back Andreas Christensen on free transfers.
While the Sixth Street deals last 25 years, the sale to the Socios.com platform is permanent.
“It’s a sale forever,” Laporta said. “There would be a way to win back that 25 percent, but right now this operation means the entry of a new partner, Socios.com, who has injected 100 million euros,” he said.
Socios.com is a platform that allows clubs to increase their interaction with fans and try to make more money from it, including using fan tokens, a type of digital asset based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
In a bid to raise funds quickly, Barcelona have taken out a €595m loan from investment bank Goldman Sachs and signed a sponsorship deal worth an estimated €435m with streaming service Spotify.
In August 2021, Laporta revealed that an audit of the club’s finances revealed Barca were facing an estimated €1.35 billion in debt.
They allowed Lionel Messi to leave for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 because they couldn’t afford to keep the Argentinian star, even with a reduced salary.
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