TelevisaUnivision Appoints New CEO Amid Reports of Underperformance, According to Reuters

By Cassandra Garrison

MEXICO CITY – TelevisaUnivision, a prominent Mexican-American media company formed from the merger of two major Spanish-language broadcasters, announced on Wednesday the replacement of its chief executive, Wade Davis.

Davis, who has served as CEO since the inception of the joint venture in 2021, will be succeeded by Daniel Alegre, a Mexican national who previously held the position of CEO at Yuga Labs, a non-fungible token creator.

The decision is part of a "long-term succession planning process," according to a company statement. Davis will shift to the role of vice chairman while remaining a member of the board’s executive committee.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Davis’s departure was precipitated by underperformance in certain company metrics relative to internal expectations. The source indicated that he had lost the confidence of stakeholders from both the U.S. and Mexico as well as financial backers.

Davis, a former executive at ViacomCBS based in the United States, did not comment when approached.

In the official statement from TelevisaUnivision, Davis expressed confidence in his successor: "We could not have picked a better successor than Daniel, who brings an incredible track record of operational and strategic execution. He is the ideal executive to take TelevisaUnivision into its next phase of growth."

Alegre, who will assume the CEO position on Thursday, has a background in the tech industry, having worked at Activision Blizzard and spending 16 years at Google, where he directed the company’s expansion in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

TelevisaUnivision is a collaboration between Televisa, the largest broadcaster in Mexico, and Univision, a leading Spanish-language network in the U.S. Davis played a crucial role in the launch of the streaming service ViX, which currently boasts around 50 million active monthly users, positioning it as a competitor to major platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus.

Since taking the reins of the newly formed entity in 2021, Davis had been leading Univision following its acquisition by Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight, the firm he founded, in 2020.

TelevisaUnivision’s initial investors included the SoftBank Latin America Fund, ForgeLight, Google, and The Raine Group.

As of 2023, TelevisaUnivision reported a 4% decline in profit to $1.61 billion, with total debt reaching $9.8 billion as per its second-quarter report. Despite these figures, the company experienced increases in total revenue and advertising revenue in 2023 and into 2024, largely driven by success in the Mexican market. However, company officials had anticipated stronger growth in the U.S. market.