Jerry Perenchio
Encyclopedia
Andrew Jerrold "Jerry" Perenchio (born December 20, 1930) was the former chairman and CEO of Univision
, the largest Spanish-language company in the United States
.
, California
, he relocated to Los Angeles
where he worked as a young Hollywood talent agent for MCA and represented such celebrity clients as Marlon Brando
and Elizabeth Taylor
.
In 1992, he and his partners spent US$550 million for Univision in 1992; his 16% stake is now worth $1.3 billion. In 2003 he paid US$3.5 billion (consideration for a merger: UVN issued 3.5B of stock in exchange for shares of HBC) for the Spanish-language powerhouse radio network
, Hispanic Broadcasting.
Along with Bud Yorkin
, he also owns the rights to the film Blade Runner
, as his bond completion company took ownership of the film when it went over its budget. The film was one of the first issued on DVD
, but the transfer from film stock was of poor quality, and was soon deleted. For many years, Perenchio refused to allow any new DVD edition of Blade Runner, including a planned 2001 Special Edition, to be issued.
Prior to his work at Univision
, he (along with Norman Lear
and Bud Yorkin
) presided over Tandem Productions
/Embassy Television
(which oversaw major television hits like Maude
, All in the Family
, and Diff'rent Strokes
). The company sold to Coca-Cola
in 1985 (who at the time was the parent of Columbia Pictures
, now owned by Sony
) for $485 million in Coke shares which later doubled. Sony
continues to own the Tandem/ELP catalog. Perenchio was also the founder of the ON-TV
UHF subscription television service that existed from 1977–1985, when cable television gained enough market share to eliminate most of the pay TV services.
In 1985 Perenchio acquired Loews Theaters from the Tisch family for $160 million and sold it barely over one year later for over $300 million to Tri-Star Pictures; the first instance of a movie studio owning movie theaters since the passage of the 1955 Paramount consent decree which had originally stripped the movie companies of their theaters. In late 1990, at the invitation of his former partner Norman Lear
he took over the management of Act III Communications, replacing the four founding entrepreneurs with his own team. While making no changes to Act III, they sold off the holdings in 1994/95, generating over a $500 million profit from Lear's original $65 million investment.
Perenchio's crowning achievement in business terms is perhaps his acquisition and sale of Univision Television, the dominant Spanish language TV network in the USA. Perenchio originally attempted to acquire Univision in 1986 but was edged out by Hallmark at approximately $500mm who later drowned in debt and filed for bankruptcy. In 1992, in collaboration with Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcarraga, Perenchio took over Univision for $500mm.
In 1993, Mr. Perenchio also was able to make possible that a Spanish Language TV station positioned itself as the first ever foreign language television station to outperform in ratings other English television networks like NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox Network. Such achievement was possible after Mr. Perenchio instructed personally to one of his young executive, Miguel Banojian, a young 25-year-old news operation's executive from Univision New York to "turn around" his Los Angeles operation which provided him more than 40% of his corporation's revenue. In 2006 Perenchio announced the sale of Univision to an investor group led by Madison Dearborn Partners for $13.5 billion.
Perenchio was also a sports event promoter and in 1973, organized The Battle of the Sexes
tennis match between Billie Jean King
and Bobby Riggs
which was held in Houston at the Astrodome. It drew the largest live audience for any tennis match ever, with 30,472 attendees. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3125360.stm. It was broadcast live on ABC in prime time and became a watershed event for Billie Jean King, women’s tennis and to some degree all of women’s sports. But perhaps his most famous promotion was the 1971 "Fight of the Century" featuring legendary heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali
and Joe Frazier
. This event is credited with creating the market for closed circuit TV broadcasts of boxing matches, precursor of today's cable pay-per-view. Perenchio guaranteed a $5m payday to the two fighters, an unheard of sum at the time.
Perenchio's mansion (under its former owners the Kirkeby's) in the East Gate Bel Air
section of Los Angeles was used for exterior establishing shots in the first few seasons (not for day to day shooting which was done on a sounstage elsewhere) as the set for the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies
.
He is also a large contributor to the Republican
advocacy organization "Progress for America
", having given US$4,000,000 in the 2004 election cycle and another US$5,000,000 in the 2006 election cycle. Election records show over $18 million in donations to Republican candidates, party funds and related causes as of 2006.
. Andy Williams is a close friend and sang at his wedding to his current wife. Perenchio himself is reputed to be a talented, classically trained singer. He is famously generous but can be tough minded, even ruthless - the founders of Act III Communications were notoriously stripped of their equity stakes in 1990 when he took over, which equity was then re-distributed to his own team. Executives running his companies have reputedly been summarily dismissed for speaking to the press without his permission. He was also the national co-finance Director for John McCain
's 2008 presidential nomination
.
Perenchio recorded interviews and discussions for the bonus DVD materials in the 2007 release of "Blade Runner Original Cut". Perenchio also received producer "presented by" credit in the packaging.
Much has been made of his "Rules of the Road" with which he manages his holdings. He has never claimed credit for originating the rules, and in fact they probably began in 1920's era MCA (the band booking service for mobbed up twenties clubs that became an LA talent agency that would employ Perenchio in the fifties and sixties.) The rules included (or have included as they change from time to time) a "no nepotism rule" (though AJP pointed out that his son was on the board of directors) and "no politicians or academisions rule" which was put in after Henry Cisneros' personal scandals embarrassed Perenchio.
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
, the largest Spanish-language company in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Early life
Born in FresnoFresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, he relocated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where he worked as a young Hollywood talent agent for MCA and represented such celebrity clients as Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
and Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
.
In 1992, he and his partners spent US$550 million for Univision in 1992; his 16% stake is now worth $1.3 billion. In 2003 he paid US$3.5 billion (consideration for a merger: UVN issued 3.5B of stock in exchange for shares of HBC) for the Spanish-language powerhouse radio network
Radio network
There are two types of radio networks currently in use around the world: the one-to-many broadcast type commonly used for public information and mass media entertainment; and the two-way type used more commonly for public safety and public services such as police, fire, taxicabs, and delivery...
, Hispanic Broadcasting.
Along with Bud Yorkin
Bud Yorkin
Bud Yorkin is an American film and television producer, director, writer and actor.Yorkin was born Alan David Yorkin in Washington, Pennsylvania. He earned a degree in engineering from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania...
, he also owns the rights to the film Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, as his bond completion company took ownership of the film when it went over its budget. The film was one of the first issued on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, but the transfer from film stock was of poor quality, and was soon deleted. For many years, Perenchio refused to allow any new DVD edition of Blade Runner, including a planned 2001 Special Edition, to be issued.
Prior to his work at Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
, he (along with Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
and Bud Yorkin
Bud Yorkin
Bud Yorkin is an American film and television producer, director, writer and actor.Yorkin was born Alan David Yorkin in Washington, Pennsylvania. He earned a degree in engineering from Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania...
) presided over Tandem Productions
Tandem Productions
Tandem Productions, Inc. was a film and television production company that was founded in 1958 by Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear.-Tandem Productions:...
/Embassy Television
Embassy Television
...
(which oversaw major television hits like Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, and Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
). The company sold to Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
in 1985 (who at the time was the parent of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, now owned by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
) for $485 million in Coke shares which later doubled. Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
continues to own the Tandem/ELP catalog. Perenchio was also the founder of the ON-TV
ON-TV
ON-TV, also known as National Subscription Television, was a subscription television service launched in 1977 by Oak Industries, Norman Lear's Chartwell Enterprises and Jerry Perenchio. Oak was a manufacturer of satellite and pay-TV decoders and equipment...
UHF subscription television service that existed from 1977–1985, when cable television gained enough market share to eliminate most of the pay TV services.
In 1985 Perenchio acquired Loews Theaters from the Tisch family for $160 million and sold it barely over one year later for over $300 million to Tri-Star Pictures; the first instance of a movie studio owning movie theaters since the passage of the 1955 Paramount consent decree which had originally stripped the movie companies of their theaters. In late 1990, at the invitation of his former partner Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
he took over the management of Act III Communications, replacing the four founding entrepreneurs with his own team. While making no changes to Act III, they sold off the holdings in 1994/95, generating over a $500 million profit from Lear's original $65 million investment.
Perenchio's crowning achievement in business terms is perhaps his acquisition and sale of Univision Television, the dominant Spanish language TV network in the USA. Perenchio originally attempted to acquire Univision in 1986 but was edged out by Hallmark at approximately $500mm who later drowned in debt and filed for bankruptcy. In 1992, in collaboration with Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcarraga, Perenchio took over Univision for $500mm.
In 1993, Mr. Perenchio also was able to make possible that a Spanish Language TV station positioned itself as the first ever foreign language television station to outperform in ratings other English television networks like NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox Network. Such achievement was possible after Mr. Perenchio instructed personally to one of his young executive, Miguel Banojian, a young 25-year-old news operation's executive from Univision New York to "turn around" his Los Angeles operation which provided him more than 40% of his corporation's revenue. In 2006 Perenchio announced the sale of Univision to an investor group led by Madison Dearborn Partners for $13.5 billion.
Perenchio was also a sports event promoter and in 1973, organized The Battle of the Sexes
The Battle of the Sexes
The Battle of the Sexes is a title given to three notable tennis matches between a male and a female player. The first match was between Bobby Riggs and Margaret Court, over the best of three sets. The second was a nationally televised match between Riggs and Billie Jean King, over the best of five...
tennis match between Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...
and Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
which was held in Houston at the Astrodome. It drew the largest live audience for any tennis match ever, with 30,472 attendees. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3125360.stm. It was broadcast live on ABC in prime time and became a watershed event for Billie Jean King, women’s tennis and to some degree all of women’s sports. But perhaps his most famous promotion was the 1971 "Fight of the Century" featuring legendary heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
and Joe Frazier
Joe Frazier
Joseph William "Joe" Frazier , also known as Smokin' Joe, was an Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981....
. This event is credited with creating the market for closed circuit TV broadcasts of boxing matches, precursor of today's cable pay-per-view. Perenchio guaranteed a $5m payday to the two fighters, an unheard of sum at the time.
Perenchio's mansion (under its former owners the Kirkeby's) in the East Gate Bel Air
East Gate Bel Air, Los Angeles
East Gate Bel Air is a very small and very wealthy area within the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, California...
section of Los Angeles was used for exterior establishing shots in the first few seasons (not for day to day shooting which was done on a sounstage elsewhere) as the set for the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993 film)
The Beverly Hillbillies is a 1993 20th Century Fox comedy motion picture starring Jim Varney, Diedrich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, Dabney Coleman, Lea Thompson, Rob Schneider and Penny Fuller...
.
He is also a large contributor to the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
advocacy organization "Progress for America
Progress For America
Progress for America and its affiliate Progress for America Voter Fund are national tax-exempt organizations in the United States. PFA was established in 2001 to support George W. Bush's "agenda for America"...
", having given US$4,000,000 in the 2004 election cycle and another US$5,000,000 in the 2006 election cycle. Election records show over $18 million in donations to Republican candidates, party funds and related causes as of 2006.
Personal life
Has a reputation for being very media shy, shunning press attention for both himself and UnivisionUnivision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
. Andy Williams is a close friend and sang at his wedding to his current wife. Perenchio himself is reputed to be a talented, classically trained singer. He is famously generous but can be tough minded, even ruthless - the founders of Act III Communications were notoriously stripped of their equity stakes in 1990 when he took over, which equity was then re-distributed to his own team. Executives running his companies have reputedly been summarily dismissed for speaking to the press without his permission. He was also the national co-finance Director for John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's 2008 presidential nomination
John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, launched his second candidacy for the presidency of the United States in an unsuccessful bid to win the 2008 presidential election. His candidacy, in the works for a number of years, was informally announced on February 28, 2007 during a...
.
Perenchio recorded interviews and discussions for the bonus DVD materials in the 2007 release of "Blade Runner Original Cut". Perenchio also received producer "presented by" credit in the packaging.
Much has been made of his "Rules of the Road" with which he manages his holdings. He has never claimed credit for originating the rules, and in fact they probably began in 1920's era MCA (the band booking service for mobbed up twenties clubs that became an LA talent agency that would employ Perenchio in the fifties and sixties.) The rules included (or have included as they change from time to time) a "no nepotism rule" (though AJP pointed out that his son was on the board of directors) and "no politicians or academisions rule" which was put in after Henry Cisneros' personal scandals embarrassed Perenchio.