Beasley Broadcast Group Inc. announced that it has acquired the Houston Outlaws, an e-sports team in Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League. We believe that this acquisition limits Beasley's ability to reduce leverage through debt repayment and signals that Beasley will continue to prioritize growth acquisitions over debt repayment. We are lowering our issuer credit rating on Beasley to 'B' from 'B+' because we expect leverage will remain above our 4.5x downgrade threshold over the next year. We are also lowering our issue-level rating on Beasley's senior secured credit facility to 'B+' from 'BB-'. The '2' recovery rating remains unchanged. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that leverage will remain in the high-4x area over the next year as the company continues
