The New York Yankees are buying back the YES

NEW YORK (AP) — Network Jose Altuve Jersey , partnering with Amazon in a deal that will give the company the right to stream games in the team’s broadcast territory.The deal for the team’s parent company to purchase 80 percent of the network from The Walt Disney Co. values YES at $3.47 billion, nearly $500 million less than when 21st Century Fox acquired a majority stake in 2014.Yankee Global Enterprises is the lead investor and partnered with Amazon.com Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group as its strategic investors, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the purchase was not announced and has up to 120 days to close.Mubadala Development Co., a United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund, is a minority investor along with The Blackstone Group, RedBird Capital, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and MSD Capital, which manages assets of Michael Dell and his family.YES was owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, Goldman Sachs, Providence Equity and NJ Holdings (a company then controlled by former New Jersey Nets owners Louis Katz and Ray Chambers) when YES sold a 49 percent stake to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in late 2012. News Corp. split into two companies the following year http://www.astrosfanproshop.com/authentic-justin-verlander-jersey , with broadcast properties spun off to 21st Century Fox.21st Century Fox raised its stake to 80 percent in early 2014 and Yankee Global Enterprises reduced its stake from 26 percent to 20 percent in a deal that valued the network at $3.9 billion.Disney announced in December 2017 a deal to acquire Fox, a change in control that triggered Yankee Global Enterprises right-of-first refusal to buy back the YES Network shares. Disney already owns ESPN, and to gain antitrust approval it reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department last June to sell the 22 regional sports networks it was acquiring.RSNs have dropped in value with the rise in cord-cutters among consumers. The deal to invest in YES will give Amazon rights to stream the games of teams on the network within their local territories. YES broadcasts the Yankees, the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and Major League Soccer’s New York City FC team.Yankee Global Enterprises, controlled by the Steinbrenner family, owns 20 percent of NYCFC. The rest of NYCFC is owned by City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City, City Football Group is controlled The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment. Khaldoon Al Mubarak is chairman of City Football Group and chief executive officer of Mubadala.YES has been the most-watched regional sports network in the U.S. in 14 of the last 16 years. Yankees games on YES averaged 326,000 viewers for live telecasts last season. HOUSTON (AP) — Touted prospect Forrest Whitley will start the season in the minors but has certainly showed why he could factor into the Houston Astros‘ plans at some point.Whitley allowed three runs over three innings in his final exhibition start as Houston beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-9 on Monday night. The outing capped a solid spring for the young right-hander.Whitley said he was able to learn from Astros veterans in camp, with preparation being the biggest thing.“I thought this spring was very beneficial George Springer Jersey , and it’s going to help me during the season,” he explained. “Sitting in (Justin) Verlander and (Gerrit) Cole’s back pockets as much as I possibly could, learning from them.”Whitley, rated the top pitching prospect in baseball by MLB.com, allowed all three runs in a 31-pitch first inning that was capped by Francisco Cervelli’s two-run homer. But he settled down after that, retiring the side in order in the second and permitting two singles in the third.The 21-year-old finished with two strikeouts and gave up six hits. He struck out 17 in 15 innings this spring.“This outing was pretty weird,” Whitley said. “I haven’t had one of these in a while. I had everything except my fastball. It’s kind of hard to pitch without the fastball. I had a hard time locating that pitch. Pitching off that was a real struggle, but I found a way to bounce back a little bit. That was encouraging.”Whitley, a 2016 first-round draft pick, will start the season at Triple-A Round Rock.“I’m very excited Evan Gattis Jersey ,” he said. “Going to the affiliate here shortly and try to pitch as well as I can to get back up here.”Houston manager AJ Hinch said the spring was a good learning time for Whitley, and he’s got a bright future.“It’s going to take an adjustment or two and attention to a couple details to be ready to pitch in the big leagues,” Hinch said. “When we call him up at some point, we are going to need him to be good.”CHISENHALL HITPirates outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall exited after being hit in the right hand by Framber Valdez’s pitch in the sixth.BIG INNINGSPittsburgh’s three-run first started with Adam Frazier scoring on Starling Marte’s double before Cervelli’s home run. The Pirates added a five-run sixth on RBI singles by Melky Cabrera and Corey Dickerson sandwiched around a two-run double by Frazier and Marte’s sacrifice fly.Houston scored seven in the third. George Springer and Alex Bregman had RBI groundouts before Michael Brantley’s two-run single and Tyler White’s three-run homer. Nick Tanielu added a three-run homer in the sixth. Garrett Stubbs and Myles Straw hit consecutive solo home runs in the seventh.JAMES’ OUTINGHouston right-hander Josh James gave up one run and three hits in the eighth. James, slowed early by a strained right quadriceps, allowed only that one run in four spring outings.UP NEXTPirates: RHP Brandon Maurer starts the exhibition finale Tuesday against the Astros.Astros: RHP J.B. Bukauskas starts Tuesday.