FC Barcelona official announcement

FC Barcelona has announced that LIBERO football finance AG and private investors advised by NIPA Capital B.V. have become new partners in Bridgeburg Invest, the holding company of Barça Vision.

The investors have acquired a total of 29,5% of the ownership of Barça Vision (Bridgeburg) for € 120 million corresponding to part of the participation being held by Socios.com and Orpheus Media. Barça Vision is the Club’s initiative to integrate all digital content around Web3 and blockchain including NFTs and metaverse, which are part of the Club’s strategy to build the digital Espai Barça.

With this transaction, FC Barcelona succeeds in strengthening Barça Vision alongside strategic partners who provide knowledge and experience to foster business opportunities in the digital world of sports and entertainment. 

The German-based company LIBERO football finance AG, which is publicly listed on the Regulated Market of Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN: DE000A161N22), specializes in holistically supporting football clubs in all matters of financing and profitability, and offers fully comprehensive advisory services around all economic matters of professional football clubs. 

NIPA Capital B.V, a Dutch based investment company provides a unique and innovate vision to accelerate company’s growth and will continue to advise the entity going forward

The sale of the participation in Bridgeburg Invest was conducted in accordance with the authorization of the General Assembly of Members of FC Barcelona held on October 23, 2021, and the participation of Socios.com and Orpheus Media as minority partners, which was ratified on October 9, 2022.

Socios.com and Orpheus will continue to play a key role in FC Barcelona’s Web3 strategy moving forward as strategic partners, deploying their expertise and technological infrastructure to develop new opportunities across various channels such as the BAR Fan Token.

Agreement with Mountain & Co. I Acquisition Corp to boost of Barça Media activity

Simultaneously, FC Barcelona enters into a Business Combination Agreement with Mountain & Co. I Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: MCAA), a special purpose acquisition company focused on the sector of European digital media and technology. Under this transaction, FC Barcelona will merge its digital Barça Vision and audiovisual content units under the brand “Barça Media”. The agreement will allow Barça Media to access additional financing through the US capital markets and will accelerate the Club's initiatives across digital and audiovisual sectors and strengthens its ability to distribute Barça Media's content to new audiences in strategic markets around the globe. FC Barcelona expects Barça Media to become a significant source of income for the Club a pro-forma enterprise value of approximately USD 1 billion (approximately €910 million).

This transaction will require the approval of the  shareholders of Mountain & Co. I Acquisition Corp. , the approval of the General Assembly of the members of FC Barcelona and is subject to other customary closing conditions. Closing is expected to take place in the last quarter of 2023.

STATEMENT BY JOAN LAPORTA, PRESIDENT OF FC BARCELONA

"Over the past few years, we have made considerable progress in the digital ecosystem turning our assets into a creative hub that boosts FC Barcelona’s brand to unique levels in the World," commented President Joan Laporta. "Club’s content strategy has proven to be a success and provides us with new ways to connect with our fans globally in addition to generate new revenue streams. This step we are taking now is a strategic move that provides us with new resources to continue growing at a time when the demand for digital sports content is clearly expanding reinforcing the path of digital transformation started in 2022".

About Barça Vision and Barça Media

Barça Vision is FC Barcelona's platform grouping all the initiatives associated with Web3, NFT's and metaverses. Barça Vision is a fundamental part of the Club's strategy to build the Espai Barça Digital and bring together the digital community of FC Barcelona fans from all over the world, with a focus on Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennials. FC Barcelona has already taken different steps such as the official FC Barcelona channel on Discord or the launch of the collection of 3,000 Barça NFTs with Plastiks to promote sustainability projects around the World.

The construction of Espai Barça Digital is one of the top priorities of the Board chaired by Joan Laporta at the same level as the physical transformation of Espai Barça. The path laid out for the new digital era of FC Barcelona started on July 29, 2022 when Barça auctioned at Sotheby's New York the first NFT in the Club’s history, the Masterpiece #1 In a way, Immortal, a tribute to an iconic goal by Johan Cruyff from December 1973 and subsequently the Masterpiece # 2 Empowerment, inspired by Alexia Putellas on the OpenSea digital platform on June 28. Previously, the Club launched its official Fan Token BAR, which has provided millions of culers around the world with a new platform to connect with the club.

With more than 350 million fans, 520 million television viewers during the 2021/2022 season alone and more than 440 million social media followers around the globe, FC Barcelona has become one of the most important sports organizations in the world. With Barça Media, FC Barcelona centralizes the creation, production, and marketing of the digital content that the Club has been producing for more than 20 years. Barça Media mission is to produce dynamic and engaging content that can be distributed through its own distribution channels and world-leading external platforms such as Disney+, DirecTV, Sony Pictures, Univision and DaZN to reach global audiences. Every year FC Barcelona produces thousands of hours of audiovisual production that make FC Barcelona a global icon in the world of sports and the entertainment and a leader in digital broadcasting with more than 2.5 billion digital interactions on its social networks (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitch) during the 2021-22 season.