TelevisaUnivision to replace Wade Davis as CEO

“He has lost the trust of the American side, the Mexican side and the funds,” the source said.

Davis, a former ViacomCBS executive based in the United States, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The executive will likely be succeeded by Daniel Alegre, a Mexican who most recently served as CEO of non-fungible token maker Yuga Labs, the sources said.

Alegre also previously worked with video game maker Activision Blizzard and spent 16 years at Google, during which time he opened offices for the tech giant across Latin America.

A board meeting to finalize the transition is expected to take place Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

TelevisaUnivision is a joint venture between Televisa, Mexico’s largest television network, and Univision, the Spanish-language television network in the United States.

Davis oversaw the launch of streaming service ViX, which now has some 50 million monthly active users worldwide and competes with Netflix and Disney Plus.

The executive was hired to lead the newly formed company in 2021, having served as Univision’s CEO since Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight, which Davis founded, completed their purchase of a majority stake in the network in 2020.

SoftBank Latin America was one of TelevisaUnivision’s original investors, along with ForgeLight, a private equity firm, Google and The Raine Group.

TelevisaUnivision reported a 4% drop in earnings to $1.61 billion in 2023. The company’s debt stands at $9.8 billion, according to its second-quarter report.

However, the company has seen increases in total revenue and advertising revenue in 2023 and so far in 2024, most of which have been driven by the Mexican market. Company officials had expected higher gains in the U.S. market, the source said.

Davis will serve as vice chairman and continue as a member of the board’s executive committee, the sources said.