Grupo Cisneros
Grupo Cisneros is a privately held, family owned business headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, historically based in Venezuela, with a focus on Latin American and Spanish-speaking people worldwide. It is a conglomerate of media entertainment, digital media, property investment, tourism development and consumer product companies which reaches 550 million Spanish and Portuguese-speaking consumers in the Americas and Europe. It also provides media content to more than 100 countries. Its current CEO is Adriana Cisneros.[1]
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| Private Company | |
| Industry | Media Entertainment Telecommunications Consumer products Real estate Tourism |
| Founded | Fundación Cisneros |
| Founder | Diego Cisneros Antonio José Cisneros |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | United States Venezuela Spain Dominican Republic Colombia Peru Ecuador Chile China |
Key people | Gustavo Cisneros (Chairman) Adriana Cisneros (CEO) |
| Subsidiaries | Venevisión Venevisión Plus Novelisima Cisneros Media Distribution Venevision Productions Venevisión USA Venevision Studios Miss Venezuela Vene Music Siente Music RedMas Cuponidad Digitel Tropicalia SAECA Travel and Tourism Fisa Laboratories Americatel |
| Website | Cisneros.com |
History
D. Cisneros & Cia.: 1929-1953
Grupo Cisneros was founded in 1929 in Venezuela by Diego Cisneros and his elder brother Antonio José Cisneros as a small material transport business called D. Cisneros & Cia.[2][3][4] The brothers then obtained a license to operate a bus route and transformed the dump truck business into a bus business. In time, the Cisneros brothers created a bus line made up of 400 buses, which they sold in 1939.[2]
In 1939, D. Cisneros & Cia. became an exclusive franchiser for Norge, Hamilton Watch Company, and REO Truck brands in Venezuela. In 1940, rapid growth led to the acquisition of the exclusive license manufacture and bottling concession of Pepsi-Cola products in Venezuela, which established the company's fortune. In 1944, the company founded Liquid Carbonic, which produced carbon dioxide as well as other beverage products.
In 1947, D. Cisneros & Cia. went on to represent the car maker, Studebaker, in Venezuela, and in 1952 founded Helados Club Ice Cream Company, which was later renamed Helados Tio Rico, S.A., and was known as Tio Rico ice cream, and became the country's largest ice cream maker.
Cisneros Group of Companies: 1953-1970
In 1953, D. Cisneros & Cia. consolidated its commercial and industrial entities under one corporate structure, which was called the Cisneros Group of Companies.
In 1968, the company founded Gaveplast, a company that produced plastic crates and cases for retail businesses for the beer and carbonated soft drink industries in South America.
Venevisión: 1961
The 1958 fall of Venezuelan president Marcos Pérez Jiménez, created many economic setbacks. This included one of Televisa's investments in Venezuela, Televisa (Venezuela) aka Televisión Venezolana Independiente SA, which went into bankruptcy. In 1960, the President of Venezuela, Rómulo Betancourt, proposed that Cisneros purchase Televisa. Cisneros purchased Televisa, and began airing channel 27 on February 27, 1961, resuming uninterrupted transmissions on March 1, 1961. Cisneros re-branded Televisa (Venezuela) as Venevisión on 27 February 1961.
Cisneros Group of Companies: 1970-2013
In 1970, when Diego Cisneros had a stroke, leadership of the company was transferred to two of his sons. In February 1970, Ricardo José Cisneros became Chief Operating Officer of Cisneros, and in March 1970, Gustavo Cisneros, only recently graduating from college, assumed the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Cisneros.
Univision: 1992-2007
In 1992, as part of a consortium of American businessman Jerry Perenchio, Mexican entrepreneur Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, and Grupo Cisneros bought Univision for $500 million. Grupo Cisneros held a 25% stake in Univision and 12.5% stake in the Univision station group. The consortium ended up selling Univision for $13.7 billion in 2007.[5]
DirecTV Latin America/Vrio: 1995-present
In 1995, Grupo Cisneros partnered with Hughes Electronics Corporation to provide all-digital direct-to-home satellite television service throughout Latin America.
Current activity
The creation of Venevision International (currently Cisneros Media Distribution), which handles the distribution, marketing and production of entertainment content, significantly increased the international scope of the conglomerate’s operations. Cisneros Media Distribution is currently one of the main programming suppliers for Univision, the leading Spanish-language television network in the United States.[12] Parallel to company dealings,
In 2011, Grupo Cisneros established joint ventures with Chinese partners.[13]
In November 2016, Adriana Cisneros Interactive started a partnership with Facebook Latin America to be its exclusive reseller in Latin American countries including Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.[14]
As of 2019, Grupo Cisneros is the last independent media outlet in Venezuela.[10]
Companies
The companies belonging to Cisneros include majority and minority stock interests in several corporations that are managed both directly or indirectly through partnerships, risk-sharing companies or alliances. Cisneros' companies are grouped into the following corporate divisions:
Cisneros Media
Cisneros' business unit, which includes its television broadcasting, production, content distribution, music and beauty contest companies.
Free-to-air and paid television channels
- Venevisión largest television network in Venezuela, Its free-to-air signal covers entire the country.[15]
Paid television channels
- Venevisión Plus: A subscription channel distributed internationally that offers 250 hours a month of programming in Spanish which combines the talent and charisma of internationally recognized artists. Venevisión Plus is currently present throughout Latin America in its various feeds
- Ve Plus TV: Formerly known as Novelísima, Ve Plus TV is a soap opera and entertainment channel with diverse programming such as talk shows, variety shows and comedy programs.[16]
- VmasTV: Subscription entertainment channel directed to Colombian audiences, with various genres and formats, such as: drama, reality shows, comedy, and contests
Content and distribution
- Cisneros Media Distribution: Formerly known as Venevisión International, Cisneros Media Distribution is an entertainment company with more than 30 years’ experience in Spanish content distribution produced by Cisneros and other companies.
- Venevisión Productions: The largest independent Hispanic production company in the United States. Its programming is distributed internationally to over 90 countries around the world.
- Venevisión Studios: A facility for the production of television programming. It has six studios consisting of over 26,000 square meters, digital cameras, digital AES, which has the ability to produce programs for high-definition.
Entertainment and music
- Miss Venezuela: Classified as the most successful local company at the international level during the nineties, this company is devoted to highlighting the beauty of Venezuelan women and has transformed Miss Venezuela into one of the beauty pageants with the greatest number of international titles. The Miss Venezuela beauty pageant is now a multimedia event. During the Interactive Gala, the public can vote for their preferred candidate through social media networks. In 2013, the Miss Venezuela contest partnered with CIC Media and Sony Entertainment to create a reality show titled “Todo por la Corona” [All For the Crown] which was broadcast throughout Latin America by Univision. Similarly, in 2013 it partnered with P&G to create pan-regional product and works with 30 brands.
- VeneMusic: A record label belonging to Venevisión International, which produces, promotes and distributes Latin music from various genres, including television theme songs from Cisneros TV productions.
- Siente Music: A joint venture between Vene Music and Universal Music Latino, the award winning division of Universal Music Group.
Cisneros Interactive
A corporate division of Cisneros develops digital businesses for Hispanic audiences in the United States and Latin America. Its business strategy is focused on two main areas: digital advertisement, both online and mobile, and e-commerce. Its main companies are:
- RedMas: One of the main Hispanic mobile ad networks and mobile studio. It offers its current and potential clients mobile design and development strategies for building mobile web sites in HTML5 and mobile applications for different operating systems such as Android, IOs, Windows, Symbian and tablets.
- Adsmovil: The main mobile publicity network in the Hispanic communications market in the U.S. and the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets in Latin America.
- Cuponidad: is a e-commerce website with daily sales offers in Peru and Venezuela. The former Colombian division filed for bankruptcy in 2015.[17]
Cisneros Real Estate
Cisneros’ real estate division is in charge of developing and positioning the company’s real estate investments which include commercial, industrial and residential properties located in various countries.
- Tropicalia: is a tourism real-estate development belonging to Cisneros. It is located in the El Seibo Province of the Dominican Republic. Tropicalia is a long term sustainable project involving thousands of coastal hectares in the southern costs of the Samana Bay.[18] The project includes a Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts hotel that was designed by the Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld with a golf course that was designed by Tom Doak.
Consumer Products and Services
- SAECA Viajes y Turismo: is a corporate level travel agencies in Venezuela. It offers delivery of tickets and traveler assistance in 125 countries, access to the online Sabre reservations system and call center service in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
- Laboratorios Fisa: manufactures and distributes personal beauty products and cosmetics in Venezuela. Its manufacturing lines includes hair care, soaps and deodorants, skin care products and fragrances for men and women.
- Americatel: Founded in April 1993, Americatel Sistemas de Comunicación C.A. is a long-distance telecommunications company. It offers corporate clients in Venezuela a "trunking" communication service, employing technology developed by Motorola, Inc. that allows a large number of users to share a relatively small number of communication paths. Americatel’s service is currently offered in Caracas, La Guaira, Maracay, Valencia, Puerto Ordaz and Maturín.
Philanthropy and corporate social responsibility
Fundación Cisneros
The Diego Cisneros Foundation was created in In 1968. Later renamed the Fundación Cisneros in April 1970, it is a private non-profit organization committed to improving education in Latin America. It supports various important educational initiatives designed to promote freedom of speech, economic development and encourage multicultural understanding. It is made up of two segments: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Fundación Cisneros Education.
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros is a privately held Latin American art organization based in Venezuela and New York City founded by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo Cisneros. As her art collection grew, Patty Cisneros saw that Latin American art was under-represented in the international art community, so the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) was formed in the 1990s, with a goal of bringing visibility and impact to the way Latin American art history is viewed and appreciated. That effort has included a four-pronged approach: An ambitious approach to lending artworks around the world,[19] working with scholars and academics to learn more about the artists and their works, the creation of a publications program to provide supporting information about the artists and their work, and building an online forum for the artwork.[20] The collection is organized in five categories that are areas of focus: Modern art, Contemporary art, Colonial art, the Orinoco collection, which is an ethnographic collection that traces the cultural production of 12 indigenous groups from the Orinoco River Basin, and the Traveler Artists to Latin America collection. Cisneros and the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros have long-term relationships with various cultural institutions globally. Among these are Tate Modern, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, among many others.
Fundación Cisneros Education
The Fundación Cisneros Education has developed various educational and cultural initiatives, such as:
- ACUDE educational program which enabled 1,000,000 people in Venezuela to become literate between 1984 and 1991.
- Centro Mozarteum, directed towards youths from all social strata with the mission of enriching musical development in Venezuela by studying and appreciating music.
- Cl@se, the first educational channel in Latin America to offer educational programming and teacher training 24 hours a day.
- AME program (Professional Development for Educators), an international online network for teaching/learning based on the ICT for promoting training for elementary teachers in Latin America.
- Piensa en arte/Think Art, an education platform based on the visual arts. It is designed under the premise that the inherent dialogue between a piece of art and the viewer provides a model for interactive learning and development of critical thinking.
Other philanthropy
In addition to activities undertaken by the Fundación Cisneros, each company has programs in the regions where they operate:
- Somos lo que Queremos (We are what we want to be), a Venevision campaign designed to highlight Venezuelan attitudes and values and promote peaceful coexistence among citizens. In 2013, this program was recognized as one of the best CSR initiatives by the “Fundación Corresponsables” in Spain.
- Mujeres Emprendedoras [Enterprising Women] an initiative created in 2010 together with the Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration (IESA) which instills business skills in women.
- Abuelos a bordo [Grandparents on board] a Saeca Carlson and Wagonlit Travel agency program, which offers recreational trips to elderly people in social risk situations.
- Miss Venezuela, encourages its candidates to obtain training in CSR, sustainable development, human rights and UN Millennium Development Objectives, as well as getting involved in various voluntary activities.
- Leadership training, since 2008, Cisneros has sponsored young Venezuelans to participate in the “Leadership Program for Global Competitiveness, in Miami, Florida.
- Voluntarios Solidarios (Caring Volunteers), a corporate volunteers program for Cisneros workers in Miami, Florida
- Responsible Tourism, a Tropicalia Foundation program which supports community development in neighboring communities around the Municipality of Miches in the Dominican Republic.
- Fundación Tropicalia, established in 2008 as part of the Tropicalia project[21]
See also
- Diego Cisneros
- Gustavo Cisneros
- Adriana Cisneros
- Venevisión
- Cisneros Media Distribution
- List of Cisneros entities
References
- Adams, Susan (6 May 2011). "Adriana Cisneros and Gustavo Cisneros of Cisneros Group". Forbes.
- Giusti, Roberto (18 December 2011). "Perfíl: Diego Cisneros a sus 100 años. Parábola de un soñador activo". El Universal (in Spanish).
- "Diego Cisneros o las Ganas del Saber" (Video). Venevisión (in Spanish). 27 September 2013.
- "Cisneros: Our History". Grupo Cisneros.
- Cisneros, Gustavo A. (23 June 2011). "Gustavo A. Cisneros on Buying Univision". Bloomberg L.P.
- Bamrud, Joachim (4 September 2013). "Cisneros: A Change of Guard". Latinvex.
- Tv Más Magazine, Adriana Cisneros appointed CEO of Cisneros
- Krischer Goodman, Cindy (27 October 2013). "Adriana Cisneros: The New Face of Cisneros Group". Miami Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- Yearwood, John (1 February 2012). "Adriana Cisneros - Interview with The World Desk The Miami Herald". Miami Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- Collins, Tim; Cisneros, Adriana (1 February 2017). "A Conversation with Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros, a Becton Fellowship Program" (Video). Yale School of Management.
- "A Conversation with Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros". Becton Fellowship Program, Yale School of Management. 2 February 2017.
- El Universal, Univisión líder de audiencia por primera vez en Estados Unidos|El Universal, Univisión líder de audiencia por primera vez en Estados Unidos
- Cancel, Daniel (17 June 2011). "Billionaire Cisneros to team with Chinese banks in Latin America oil, gold". Bloomberg L.P.
- "Cisneros Interactive firma alianza con Facebook". El Economista (in Spanish). 29 November 2016.
- Diario de Caracas: AGB: los 10 programas más vistos son de Venevisión
- http://www.veplustv.com/
- http://www.noticiascaracol.com/valle/colombia/cuponidad-le-respondera-compradores-y-proveedores
- Vallejos M., Felipe (9 May 2016). "La apuesta de inversión más importante de Grupo Cisneros". Forbes Mexico (in Spanish).
- Kraul, Chris (27 January 2009). "Cisneros art trove ends its nomadic phase". Los Angeles Times.
- "Chapter 1: Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, A Passion for Latin America" (Video). Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. 16 October 2016.
- "Fundación Tropicalia - About us". Fundación Tropicalia.
External links
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