All of the outstanding shares will be acquired by the private equity firm Silver Lake, which would pay stockholders $27.50 per share and value WME’s owner at $13 billion.
The Endeavour run by Ari Emanuel is going private after three years as a publicly traded firm.
The majority shareholder Silver Lake will purchase the Beverly Hills-based sports and entertainment behemoth at a valuation of $13 billion. Silver Lake is the owner of talent agencies WME and IMG as well as assets like the PBR bull riding organisation, betting data firm OpenBet, marketing agency 160over90, and hospitality firm On Location. The company announced this information on Tuesday.
All of the outstanding shares will be purchased by the private equity firm Silver Lake, and Endeavour investors will get $27.50 per share. The corporation was listed as “EDR” on the New York Stock Exchange.
With this action, the company ends a journey that started before to the epidemic in May 2019, when it announced plans to go public, but was shelved a few months later due to unfavourable market conditions. During its initial public offering, investors appeared to be curious about the worth of Endeavour leaders’ entertainment and sports holdings, as well as the big talent agencies together.
Notice was taken in Beverly Hills when WME’s main rival CAA was sold to Artémis, the François-Henri Pinault-controlled investment business, last September at a $7 billion price. If CAA alone was valued at $7 billion, then WME along with every asset under Endeavor’s management ought to fetch a substantial.
In an effort to maximise value, Endeavour separated its mixed martial arts league, UFC, from World Wrestling Entertainment through a merger last year, creating TKO Group Holdings, a holding company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “TKO.” In addition, Emanuel is the CEO of TKO, and Mark Shapiro, the president of Endeavour, is the president and COO of the sports company. Endeavour and TKO Group’s combined enterprise value is currently valued at $25 billion by Silver Lake.
2012 saw Silver Lake, under the direction of co-CEOs Greg Mondre and Egon Durban, make its first investment in WME, one year before the business started to make acquisitions. It acquired talent agency IMG, which specialised in sports and fashion, for $2.4 billion at the end of 2013, a move that stimulated private equity investment. Watch All Blacks vs Fiji Rugby live
