Silver Lake has efficiently taken publicly traded Endeavor non-public once more, closing its acquisition of excellent shares that can see the leisure big led by Ari Emanuel wave goodbye to the New York Inventory Trade after 5 years.
The Endeavor model will now not be used publicly. Its assortment of property will working underneath WME Group.
The Silver Lake acquisition group, which additionally consists of Endeavor administration and a few outdoors buyers, has acquired 100% of the excellent shares within the firm they didn’t already personal. As reported, Endeavor’s public stockholders are entitled to obtain $27.50 in money for every share of Endeavor Class A typical inventory as of the closing – a 55% premium.
It’s been a protracted gestating deal. Emanuel took Endeavor public in April of 2021 and by fall of 2023 introduced plans to discover alternate options. Its largest investor, Silver Lake Companions, stepped up, saying it wished to purchase in EDR. It formally proposed to try this a 12 months in the past and closed in the present day.
Silver Lake owns 71% of the voting energy of Endeavor and its co-CEO Egon Durban and Managing Director Stephen Evans are members of the board’s Government Committee.
Endeavor went public with fanfare however didn’t see the inventory grains that Emanuel had hoped for. So after a number of years, he famous “the continued dislocation between Endeavor’s public market worth and the intrinsic worth of Endeavor’s underlying property” as a purpose for evaluating choices.
The IPO proved key, nevertheless, because it supplied the corporate with a foreign money to do a significant deal – buying Vince McMahon’s WWE and merging it with UFC to create main sports activities and leisure firm TKO Group.
Immediately’s announcement mentioned Endeavor retains
its controlling possession stake in TKO.
Silver Lake believes that when consolidating all of TKO’s worth into Endeavor, the mixed complete enterprise worth of $25 billion at $27.50 per share makes this the most important non-public fairness sponsor public-to-private funding transaction in over a decade, and the most important ever within the media and leisure sector.
The portfolio of illustration companies owned by Endeavor Group will now be known as WME Group.
WME’s property embrace its eponymous expertise company; IMG Licensing, a world chief in model licensing; non-scripted, Emmy profitable Pantheon Media Group with its 20 manufacturing labels.
Egon Durban, co-CEO and Managing Accomplice of Silver Lake, mentioned, “This outstanding second— and the much more thrilling future it launches—is thanks before everything to Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, and to the relentless and bold strategic imaginative and prescient they’ve shared for greater than twenty years to construct Endeavor into a world powerhouse throughout expertise, manufacturers, and IP spanning leisure, media, and sports activities. Silver Lake is proud and honored to be their companions since 2012 as they’ve continued to construct the corporate.”
“Silver Lake has beforehand invested on six separate events to help Endeavor and now, with this newest funding, it’s the single largest place in our international portfolio.” Durban continued: “Silver Lake has by no means bought a share, as a substitute growing our stake as we stay extremely excited in regards to the long-term development outlook for the corporate.”
Silver Lake Silver Lake is a world expertise funding agency with roughly $104 billion in property underneath administration and dedicated capital.
Ariel Emanuel, now Government Chairman of WME Group, “I’m grateful to Egon and the staff at Silver Lake for the belief they’ve positioned in me as a founder and entrepreneur. Collectively, we’ve got created and enhanced a basis not like every other to speed up worth creation for purchasers and companions throughout WME Group and TKO, which I’m excited to proceed to construct and develop.”
Management, different particulars:
Ariel Emanuel, who based the Endeavor expertise company in 1995 and most just lately served as CEO of Endeavor, is now Government Chairman of WME Group. He additionally continues as CEO and Government Chair of TKO.
Mark Shapiro will now lead WME Group as President and Managing Accomplice along with Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz. Shapiro most just lately served as President and COO of Endeavor. He additionally continues as President and COO of TKO.
Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz, who’ve served as Co-Chairmen of WME since Fall 2022, are actually Co-Chairmen of WME Group and proceed to steer the company.
Patrick Whitesell will develop into the CEO and Founding father of a brand new platform in partnership with Silver Lake to spend money on and scale properties and IP throughout sports activities, media, and leisure.
WME Group is the brand new identify for the portfolio of illustration companies that features expertise company WME, model licensing company IMG Licensing, advertising and marketing company 160over90, and nonscripted content material enterprise Pantheon Media.
WME Group is a world community of companies that signify the world’s main expertise, mental property, and types.
The Endeavor model will now not be used publicly, however Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. stays the privately held mother or father firm of WME Group and retains its controlling possession stake in TKO Group Holdings, Inc. Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. owns roughly 61% of TKO.
TKO is a premium sports activities and leisure firm comprising UFC, WWE, IMG, On Location and PBR that is still publicly traded (NYSE: TKO).
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