Fanatics hires Meta IR chief ahead of anticipated IPO
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Fanatics has hired Meta's (NASDAQ:META) head of investor relations to lead its own IR operations ahead of an anticipated initial public offering.
The sports merchandise and online betting company announced Thursday that it has appointed Deborah Crawford as its new head of IR. Prior to Meta, Crawford served as head of IR for Netflix (NFLX), joining just after that company's IPO, and held the same position at Ancestry.com. 
Fanatics Chief Financial Officer Glenn Schiffman told Barron's that the company could go public within the next 12 to 24 months. He added that Fanatics was not in a rush to go public as it was profitable and had ample cash to fund operations and seek out acquisitions, if needed.
Fanatics raised around $700M last December at a valuation of around $31B, according to the Wall Street Journal. Investors included Clearlake Capital Group, LionTree, Silver Lake, SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY) and Fidelity Management & Research.
Based in New York, Fanatics is a provider of licensed team merchandise, online sports betting and collectibles such as Topps trading cards.
In related news, Meta's stock surged early Thursday after it reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings and raised its Q2 forecast.
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