MEXICO CITY, Sept 18 (Reuters) - TelevisaUnivision, a

Mexican-American media company that combines content from two of

the largest Spanish-language broadcasters, said on Wednesday it

replaced its chief executive Wade Davis.

Davis, who had been CEO since the joint venture was formed

in 2021, will be succeeded by Daniel Alegre, a Mexican who most

recently served as chief executive of non-fungible token maker

Yuga Labs.

The move was part of a "long-term succession planning

process," the company said in a statement. Davis will transition

to the role of vice chairman and continue as a member of the

board's executive committee.

Davis was terminated, according to a source with knowledge

of the decision, due to some company results that have lagged

internal expectations.

"He lost the confidence of the U.S. side, the Mexican side

and of the funds," the source said.

Davis, a former ViacomCBS executive who is based in the

U.S., did not respond to a request for comment.

In TelevisaUnivision's statement, Davis said: "We could not

have picked a better successor than Daniel, who brings an

incredible track record of operational and strategic execution.

He is the ideal executive to take TelevisaUnivision into its

next phase of growth."

Alegre, who will begin as CEO on Thursday, previously worked

at videogame maker Activision Blizzard and spent 16 years at

Google, during which he oversaw the tech giant's expansion in

Latin America and Asian Pacific countries.

TelevisaUnivision is a joint venture between Televisa

, Mexico's largest broadcaster, and U.S.

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. Davis oversaw the launch

of streaming service ViX, which now has about 50 million global

monthly active users and competes with Netflix Inc ( NFLX ) and

Disney Plus.

Davis, who was hired to lead the newly formed company in

2021, had served as the CEO of Univision since Searchlight

Capital Partners and ForgeLight, which Davis founded, completed

their majority stake purchase of the network in 2020.

The SoftBank Latin America fund was one of

TelevisaUnivision's original investors, alongside ForgeLight, a

private equity firm, Google and The Raine Group.

TelevisaUnivision posted a 4% drop in profit to $1.61

billion in 2023. The company's debt stands at $9.8 billion,

according to its second-quarter report.

The firm has, however, seen gains in total revenue and

revenue from advertising in 2023 and so far in 2024, most of

which has been driven by the Mexican market. Company officials

had hoped for stronger gains in the U.S. market, the source

said.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; editing by Stephen

Eisenhammer, Christian Plumb and Lincoln Feast.)