Jerry Perenchio
Jerry Perenchio (born December 20,1930) is a former talent agent who owns Univision, the largest Spanish-language TV network in the United States.
Born Andrew Jerrold Perenchio in Fresno, California, he relocated to Los Angeles where he worked as a young Hollywood talent agent for MCA and represented such celebrity clients as Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.
In 1992, he and his partners spent US$550 million for Univision in 1992; his 16% stake is now worth $1.3 billion. In 2003 he paid US$3.5 billion for the Spanish-language powerhouse radio network, Hispanic Broadcasting.
Along with Bud Yorkin, he also owns the rights to the film Blade Runner, as his bond completion company took ownership of the film when it went over its budget. The film was one of the first issued on DVD, but the transfer from film stock was of poor quality, and was soon deleted. For many years, Perenchio refused to allow any new DVD edition of Blade Runner, including a planned 2001 Special Edition, to be issued.
Prior to his work at Univision, he (along with Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin) presided over Tandem Productions/Embassy Television (which oversaw major television hits like Maude, All in the Family, and Diff'rent Strokes). The company sold to Coca-Cola in 1985 (who at the time was the parent of Columbia Pictures, now owned by Sony) for $485 million in Coke shares which later doubled. Sony continues to own the TAT/Tandem/Embassy catalog. In 1985 Perenchio acquired Loews Theaters from the Tisch family for $160 million and sold it barely over one year later for over $300 million to Tri-Star Pictures; the first instance of a movie studio owning movie theaters since the passage of the 1955 "Paramount" consent decree which had originlly stripped the movie companies of their theaters. In late 1990, at the invitation of his former partner Norman Lear he took over the management of Act III Communications, replacing the four founding entrepeneurs with his own team. While making no changes to Act III, they sold off the holdings in 1994/95, generating over a $500 million profit from Lear's original $65 million investment.
Perenchio's crowning achievement in business terms is perhaps his acquisition and sale of Univision Television, the dominant Spanish language TV network in the USA. Perenchio originally attempted to acquire Univision in 1986 but was edged out by Hallmark at approximately $500mm who later drowned in debt and filed for bankruptcy. In 1992, in collaboration with Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcarraga, Perenchio took over Univision for $500mm. In 2006 Perenchio announced the sale of Univision to an investor group led by Madison Dearborn Partners for $13.5 billion.
Perenchio was also a sports event promoter and in 1973, organized the "Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs which was held in Houston at the Astrodome. It drew the largest live audience for any tennis match ever, 30472. [1]. It was broadcast live on ABC in prime time and became a watershed event for Billie Jean King, women’s tennis and to some degree all of women’s sports. But perhaps his most famous promotion was the 1971 "Thrilla in Manila" featuring legendary heavyweight champions Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. This event is credited with creating the market for closed circuit TV broadcasts of boxing matches, prescursor of today's cable pay-per-view. Perenchio guaranteed a $5mm payday to the two fighters, an unheard of sum at the time.
Perenchio's Bel Air mansion was used as the set for the movie The Beverly Hillbillies.
He is also a large contributor to the Republican advocacy organization "Progress for America", having given US$4,000,000 in the 2004 election cycle and another US$5,000,000 in the 2006 election cycle. Election records show over $18mm in donations to Republican candidates, party funds and related causes as of 2006.
Has a reputation for being very media shy, shunning press attention for both himself and Univision. Andy Williams is a close friend and sang at his wedding to his current wife. Perenchio himself is reputed to be a talented, classically trained singer. He is famously generous but can be tough minded, even ruthless - the founders of Act III Communications were notoriously stripped of their equity stakes in 1990 when he took over, which equity was then re-distributed to his own team. Executives running his companies have reputedly been summarily dismissed for speaking to the press without his permission.