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⚖️ Situational awareness: Jury deliberations in the NFL's Sunday Ticket antitrust trial are set to begin today from Los Angeles.

Lost In has raised $4 million and closed an acquisition to grow a travel media brand, CEO Jonathan Skogmo exclusively tells Axios.

Why it matters: The funding bets on digital media veterans' ability to innovate in the fragmented sector of travel coverage.

How it works: Skogmo says Lost In plans to serve the "premium economy traveler" — young working professionals who are affluent, from urban cities and prioritize travel as part of their lifestyle.

The Los Angeles-based company has nine staffers, including the three co-founders — Jonathan Skogmo is CEO, his brother Mike is CMO and Anton Reut is COO.

The initial strategy is a roll-up of assets, Skogmo says. The startup's name comes from its first acquisition — a Berlin-based travel guidebook publisher with 25 volumes that was founded in 2014. The founders are staying on to run the print publication business.

Future acquisitions could include social media accounts with large followings that are underutilized and other existing travel media brands, Skogmo says. It plans to produce its own content and license content from creators that will be monetized through advertising.

Zoom in: MaC Venture Capital led the seed round and was joined by BDMI, Pitbull Ventures, Pocket.Watch founder Chris Williams, Fullscreen founder George Strompolos, Hawke Media founder Erik Huberman, Skybound founder David Alpert, Kombo Ventures' Kevin Gould, Richard Wolpert, Matthew Rutler and others.

For the guidebook acquisition which closed on June 25, ADVANT Beiten and Sklar Kirsh served as legal advisers to the buyer and Flick Gocke Schaumburg represented the seller. Digital Media Capital Advisors' Rob Levy served as financial adviser to the buyer.

What's next: Skogmo says he plans to raise more money later this year to fund other acquisitions.

Travel media money

Illustration of a beach chair and palm tree made out of money.

A24, the Hollywood studio behind "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Civil War," raised new funding led by Thrive Capital that now values it at $3.5 billion.

Why it's the BFD: The investment comes amid a broader production slowdown in Hollywood that has seen many major studios pull back on content spending.

Zoom in: The total investment this round was around $100 million, a source with knowledge of the terms tells Axios. 

The round valued A24 at $3.5 billion, the source said, which would represent a 40% bump from its last investment round in 2022, when it was valued at $2.5 billion.

Thrive's Josh Kushner will join A24's board of directors.

A24's existing investors also participated in the round.

The big picture: A24 made waves as an indie darling more known for award-winning arthouse films than huge box office receipts.

More recently, it has pushed into doing bigger-budget movies that have more commercial appeal.

April's "Civil War," which was the studio's most expensive film with a budget said to be between $50 million and $75 million, landed its biggest opening weekend with $25 million this past April.

"Civil War" was also the first to play on Imax screens. It became just the studio's second movie to surpass $100 million at the global box office.

A24 has also increased its TV output in recent years with shows like "Euphoria," "The Idol," "Beef" and "The Sympathizer."

Catch up quick: A24 last raised $225 million in 2022, which was led by Stripe.

A few years ago, A24 reportedly explored an outright sale, asking between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. It is now valued above that asking price.

A24 is Thrive-ing

Illustration of a film strip with one hundred dollar bills in each frame

Verizon is launching its latest bundle that will allow its internet customers to add on streaming services like Netflix and Max at a discounted rate.

Why it matters: Verizon has moved aggressively into bundling and making itself a middleman of sorts for customers and their streaming services.

Zoom in: The new offering, called myHome, is similar to Verizon's myPlan, which allows phone customers to add on certain streaming services to their phone plans at a reduced price.

MyHome allows customers to pick their home internet plan (starting at $35 a month) and then add on many of the same perks as myPlan customers, each for $10 a month. Those include a bundle of Disney streaming services and a separate bundle of Netflix and Max.

Additional perks include a Walmart+ membership and Cloud storage. A live TV service, either Fios or YouTube TV, can be added to the plan as well.

The big picture: With streaming services under pressure to turn a profit, bundling themselves with utilities like internet and phone plans helps to reduce churn.

In addition to myPlan, Verizon has +play, a streaming platform that aggregates multiple kinds of subscription services.

Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon Consumer, tells Axios that all of its content partners "see a massive reduction in churn" after partnering with them.

The current home internet and entertainment subscription options from providers are a mess, Sampath says. "It's very confusing and frustrating for customers."

Verizon expands bundle play

A shopping cart loaded with a giant "play" button like those on web videos 

Go deeper in our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• 🎵 Create Music Group, a record label and music distribution platform, raised $165m led by Flexpoint Ford at a $1b valuation. axios.link/3VTkZHX

• Smashing, an online content curation startup from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, raised $3.4m in seed funding from True Ventures, Blockchange, Offline Ventures, Advancit Capital and Power of N Ventures. axios.link/3XF3Y5M

• Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) is in talks to sell digital marketing agency R/GA to India's Tata Consultancy Services for $300m, the Wall Street Journal reports. axios.link/3xtZu7j

• Derek McLay, former EDO theatrical president, acquired EDO Box Office and EDO Screenings from EDO, an analytics firm catered to Hollywood co-founded by Edward Norton. McLay is using the acquisitions to launch his new firm, Insight Theatrical. axios.link/3VVqLJd

• Canada's Sphere Media has acquired Abacus Media Rights, the U.K.  distributor that sells "Leaving Neverland" and "Scrublands" in a deal valued at C$24.6m. axios.link/45IPXG1

Deal flow

• Lloyd Bucher was named VP and general manager of WPHL Philadelphia, a Nexstar Media Group-owned CW affiliate. axios.link/3zeGVoe

• Uri Berliner, the former NPR editor who left after he accused the outlet of having a liberal bias, is joining Bari Weiss' The Free Press. axios.link/3L0cXqv

• Nicole Ridgway was named EIC of The 74, a nonprofit education news site. axios.link/3XzWEZ3

Movin' on up (or out)

🎤 YouTube in talks with record labels over AI music deal (FT)

"The company has recently offered lump sums of cash to the major labels — Sony, Warner and Universal — to try to convince more artists to allow their music to be used in training AI software, according to several people briefed on the talks," Anna Nicolaou and Madhumita Murgia write.

🥳 IATSE, AMPTP reach tentative agreement on new contract (Variety)

"The three-year contract still must be ratified by the union's membership. The AMPTP still has to negotiate deals with the Teamsters and the other Basic Crafts unions, as well as the Area Standards Agreement with IATSE," Carolyn Giardina and Gene Maddaus write.

🗣️ Paramount Global co-CEOs reveal bankers hired to sell assets; discuss path forward at town hall (Deadline)

"In sum, bankers have been hired to explore the sale of 'certain Paramount owned assets' per Cheeks, while layoffs are on the horizon as the conglom looks to achieve a half billion in cost savings," Anthony D'Alessandro, Jill Goldsmith and Dominic Patten write.

Channel surfing

an illustration of a television that says "channel surfing" on the screen being held up by hands on a dark smoky background

@tim_bays: "Despicable Me" on Peacock. Wife and I had never seen any of the movies. Now she's obsessed with the Minions.  

@kerrymflynn: Off this week to look at the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders.

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

Thank you for reading Axios Pro Media Deals! Please ask your friends, colleagues and travel aficionados to sign up.

June 26, 2024

1 big thing: Travel media money