Sportsya to Produce Starmedia Content

Miami-based Sportsya (www.sportsya.com) yesterday announced an alliance to produce a co-branded sports site with New York-based access and content provider Starmedia (NASDAQ: STRM) (www.starmedia.com), which will become Starmedia's sports channel. The production and content partnership paves the way for Sportsya to access Starmedia's 18 million unique users worldwide, and for the horizontal portal to tap into Sportsya's team of editors and columnists in Latin America, the US and Spain, according to a company statement. Under the agreement, Sportsya said it would provide multimedia coverage of virtually all sports with particular emphasis on soccer. While financial terms were not disclosed, both companies expect to derive revenues from the agreement. Sportsya president and CEO Emilio Romano told BNamericas.com last month that the company planned to reach breakeven in 4Q01, and as a step towards profitability had reduced its staff in the region by 25% to 150. The site's investors - IMG/Chase Sports Capital, Chase Capital Partners, Flatiron Partners and Ventech LLC - are backing the new strategy with an additional US$10mn. In total, Sportsya has received US$42mn in venture capital since it was founded in November 1998. Starmedia's backers include Warburg Pincus and Chase Capital Partners.