paidContent - MLBAM's Bob Bowman Tells Jim Cramer: No IPO 'For A Long, Long Time'
This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer rarely does Mad Money interviews with execs of companies that aren’t public but the MLB.TV fan and subscriber made an exception Tuesday afternoon with MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman. The two are far from strangers—they went to Harvard together—but they are far apart on one subject: the future for MLB’s digital arm. Cramer thinks it should go public. Bowman is far from ready. He told Cramer: “There’s only two reasons to go public: You need capital or youre trying to pay people off whove invested. We dont need capital. We have patient owners, we have long-viewed owners and it’s really helped us make us where we are by being private so I don’t think you’ll see us public for a long, long time.” We’ve embedded the full video below.
Bowman’s appearance coincided with the launch of a new feature that gives MLB.TV’s 350,000 subs the chance to watch a full schedule of live baseball on the iPhone by adding the At Bat app for $10. At Bat’s 215,000 subs can see one live streaming game a day (picked by MLB)—or they can add MLB.TV to gain more access. It’s all subject to the usual blackout restrictions. Subscribers who already have both can take advantage of the new feature with an app update. As for the overlap, Bowman told me after he recorded Mad Money, “We’re all going to learn together what the overlap is.”
By Staci D. Kramer