Fenway Partners LLC has hired an investment bank to help it sell Easton-Bell Sports, according to a Reuters report and a banking source reached by Sports Executive Weekly.
While Fenway and Easton-Bell officials declined to comment on the report, a source reached by Sports Executive Weekly identified the bank as Goldman Sachs. Reuters attributed its report to three unnamed sources.
Fenway Partners formed Easton-Bell in 2006 by merging its portfolio companies Riddell Bell Holdings with Easton Sports to create a company with $600 million in annual sales and leading market positions in multiple team and action sports markets. In addition to Riddell football helmets, the company owns the Giro and Bell brands, which make bicycle, motorsports and snow sports helmets, and the Easton brand, which makes wheels and other bicycle parts and accessories as well as baseball, lacrosse and hockey gear and apparel. It also owns Blackburn, which makes trainers for cyclists.
The news follows the resignation of Easton-Bells CEO Paul Harrington in February, when former CEO and co-owner Terry Lee took over as executive chairman and chief executive officer and Tim Mayhew, a managing director of Fenway Consulting Partners, LLC and an Easton-Bell board member since 2004, was named president and chief operating officer at that time.
Easton-Bell lost $3.42 million on net sales of $827.2 million in 2012, as Team Sports sales dipped 1.7 percent to $480.3 million and Action Sports sales fell 4.3 percent to $346.9 million. It was the companys first loss since 2006. The company comes on the market amid a growing number of product liability lawsuits against its Riddell unit stemming from head injuries football players say they sustained while wearing the companys helmets. Last week, a jury in Colorado ruled Riddell was liable for $3.1 million of an $11.5 million reward to a high school football player because it did not provide adequate warnings of the health risks of using its helmets. Riddell said it will appeal the verdict.
While the verdict was an anomaly, it could set a costly precedent as Riddell and other helmet manufacturers as they litigate concussion related claims filed by thousands of former NFL players, according to Paul D. Anderson, an attorney who has helped retired NFL players seek compensation for concussion related injuries sustained during their pro football careers. Riddell has been named in 41 suits by groups of retired NFL players, according to its 2012 10K.
