Endeavor goes private again as Silver Lake completes purchase of entertainment giant
US media and entertainment giant Endeavor Group Holdings is a privately held company once again after completing its sale to American private equity firm Silver Lake.
With the conclusion of the deal, Endeavor, which comprises talent agency WME, unscripted content business Pantheon Media Group, brand licensing agency IMG Licensing and marketing agency 160over90, is being rebranded as WME Group.
In addition, there are title changes and moves for several of the company’s leaders.
Ari Emanuel will shift from his role as CEO to become executive chairman of WME Group, while Mark Shapiro has been promoted to president and managing partner. Patrick Whitesell, who was Endeavor’s executive chairman, is exiting the company to launch a new venture backed by Silver Lake.
Details about Whitesell’s new venture have not been fully revealed, with a WME Group press release noting it would “invest in and scale properties and IP across sports, media, and entertainment.” Whitesell is CEO and founder of the new venture, which will receive US$250m in seed equity from Silver Lake, as first announced a year ago.
The completion of the take-private transaction comes around 18 months after Endeavor announced it was reviewing strategic alternatives, citing a “dislocation” between its market value and the “intrinsic” value of its underlying assets.
At the time, it said that going private once again was among the options it was exploring, after completing an initial public offering in the spring of 2021.
It announced last April that Silver Lake, which already held around 71% of the voting power of the company, would acquire the remaining shares it didn’t already own and take the company private.
In the time since, it has also reshaped its portfolio of assets with the sale of sports gambling and tech businesses OpenBet and IMG Arena to OB Global Holdings in a US$450m deal.
With the transaction, Endeavor will continue to retain its controlling ownership stake in TKO Group Holdings, parent company to both World Wresting Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
According to Silver Lake, when consolidating all of TKO’s value into WME Group, the company’s combined enterprise value is US$25bn, which makes the deal the “largest private equity sponsor public-to-private investment transaction in over a decade, and the largest ever in the media and entertainment sector.”
Equity financing for the transaction includes a combination of new and reinvested equity from Silver Lake, as well as additional capital from Mubadala Investment Company, DFO Management, Lexington Partners, funds managed by both Goldman Sachs Asset Management and CPP Investments and equity rolled over by Emanuel, Whitesell and Shapiro, among others.
“This remarkable moment – and the even more exciting future it launches – is thanks first and foremost to Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, and to the relentless and ambitious strategic vision they have shared for more than twenty years to build Endeavor into a global powerhouse across talent, brands, and IP spanning entertainment, media, and sports,” said Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake.
“Silver Lake is proud and honored to be their partners since 2012 as they have continued to build the company. Over this period, revenue has grown by twentyfold. Silver Lake has previously invested on six separate occasions to support Endeavor and now, with this latest investment, it is the single largest position in our global portfolio.”
