Interesting story via Dylan Byers, Senior Media Reporter for NBC News and MSNBC.

Just after the sale of Sports Illustrated’s publishing rights, which ultimately resulted in mass layoffs at the company, The Athletic apparently stepped in to make an offer that would have helped avoid those job cuts.

Writes Byers:

Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, the co-founders of the burgeoning sports news site The Athletic, tried to acquire the licensing rights to the Sports Illustrated media business after it became evident that Maven intended to turn the storied magazine into a content farm, sources familiar with the Athletic’s offer tell me.

The Athletic’s offer, which was at a premium on Maven’s deal, would have given Sports Illustrated the opportunity to sustain and even grow its journalistic operation. Instead, Maven has cut roughly half of the editorial staff and plans to hire freelancers who will be paid based on their ability to drive traffic.

This all unfolded back in October, when previous owner Meredith sold Sports Illustrated to a new company, Authentic Brands Group, which then licensed the publishing rights to Maven. The layoffs then commenced.

Byers reports that The Athletic tried to get involved right around that time, offering $50 million dollars for the licensing rights, which was an 11% premium on what Maven paid, but it came too late and was declined.

Meantime, The Athletic continues to grow. They’ve expanded overseas and hired a bunch of soccer writers. They’ve branched out to podcasting and there are 29 job openings currently posted to the site.