Ariel Emanuel: Last News

Endeavor Group said today it has initiated a formal review to evaluate strategic alternatives for the company.

Endeavor is selling OpenBet and IMG Arena in a management buyout backed by Ariel Emanuel with participation from executives of OpenBet, including CEO Jordan Levin.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The UFC and WWE both saw strong gains in site fees, sponsorship dollars and live event demand in the second quarter, which boosted the fortunes of its parent company enough to allow TKO to raise full-year financial guidance for the second consecutive quarter. Total company revenue came in at $851.2 million, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $420.9 million and net income of $150.7 million. The WWE’s WrestleMania 40 event and the UFC 300 and 303 events busted through expectations.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Let’s talk about the David of it all. The new chairman and CEO of the soon-to-be-combined Skydance and Paramount Global — Hollywood producer and Oracle heir David Ellison — has had quite the week, and it’s only Wednesday. Show business, Wall Street and media watchers have digested the news that Ellison finally brokered a deal for the Redstone family empire.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Endeavor, three years after the sports and entertainment company went public, announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by private-equity firm Silver Lake. The deal gives Endeavor an equity value of $13 billion, the companies said.

Endeavor’s publicly traded TKO Group has named Dwayne Johnson to its board of directors, effective today. The WWE superstar has also secured full ownership of the trademarked name The Rock.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Vince McMahon is cashing out. McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, intends to offer 8.4 million shares of Class A common stock in TKO Group, the company formed by the merger of WWE and UFC, which was engineered by Endeavor. Those shares are currently worth about $713 million at TKO’s most recently closing share price.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Endeavor Group, the parent of the WME talent agency and a significant shareholder in the new TKO combat-sports business, said it would launch a “strategic review” of its assets in a bid to find new ways to boost shareholder value. “Given the continued dislocation between Endeavor’s public market value and the intrinsic value of Endeavor’s underlying assets, we believe an evaluation of strategic alternatives is a prudent approach to ensure we are maximizing value for our shareholders,” said Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor, in a prepared statement.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Endeavor has big financial plans for the rest of the year as the company announced Tuesday it will declare its first dividend and begin its first stock buyback program as it awaits its acquisition of WWE and sale of IMG Academy. Endeavor delivered solid first quarter results on Tuesday, powered by growth in its owned sports properties unit which is about to grow substantially as Endeavor closes its $21 billion takeover of WWE later this year. Endeavor’s events and experiences unit also was in positive territory for the quarter. But the hangover of the January 2022 sale of the Endeavor Content production unit put a dent in the representation unit’s quarterly numbers.

Two of the world’s biggest fighting organizations are coming together.

Endeavor sales dipped 16% to $1.26 billion last quarter from the year before due mostly to the absence of its divested Endeavor Content business as it posted an upbeat fourth quarter. A diversified biz and focus on sports and live events limit the ad hit faced by other media companies, and it has yet to feel much of a pinch from any slowdown in content spending by the majors.

Endeavor rode the wave of demand for live sports and entertainment experiences to deliver solid revenue and adjusted earnings gains for the fourth quarter and full-year 2022. The company also made progress on shaving down its debt load, which has been a millstone for the parent of UFC, WME and other major industry players ever since Endeavor went public in 2021. Over the course of 2022, the company made about $500 million in debt payments, most of which were made in Q4, to bring its total long-term debt to just over $5 billion, from $5.63 billion as of the end of 2021. For the fourth quarter, Endeavor generated revenue of $1.26 billion, down 16% year over year, a decline largely due to the sale of its content production business to Korea-based CJ ENM in January 2022. The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in at $239.6 million (compared with EBITDA of $229.5 million in Q4 2021). On a net income basis, the company posted a loss of $225.7 million (versus a net loss of $19.5 million in the year-earlier period).

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorEndeavor delivered strong second quarter earnings on Thursday with wind at the back of its sports, live events and talent representation operations.The company that is home to UFC, WME and IMG saw year-over year revenue gains at its key units for the quarter as sports and entertainment activity continues to adjust to the post-pandemic new normal. Strong demand especially for sports and events pushed Endeavor to post net income of $42.2 million on revenue of $1.3 billion, which was up about 18% from the year-ago mark.The upswing prompted Endeavor to slightly adjust its full-year forecast for adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization to a range of $1.13 billion to $1.17 billion, which is up from the estimate of $1.1 billion to $1.15 billion offered in May with Q1 results.

Endeavor Group said revenue rose 18% to $1.3 billion last quarter led by higher media rights fees and live event, partnership, consumer product and licensing revenues at UFC as well as the return of live events.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorEndeavor swung wide to a profit in Q1, fueled by the sale of Endeavor Content and big year-over-year gains for its events and talent representation units.Endeavor posted net income of $517 million on revenue of $1.47 billion. The black ink was driven by a $463.6 million one-time gain stemming from the sale last year of the Endeavor Content division, which was acquired by South Korea’s CJ ENM for $775 million.Excluding the Endeavor Content gain, Endeavor’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in it about $129.2 million.The company raised its full-year 2022 revenue guidance slighty, predicting it will come in between $5.235 billion and $5.47 billion, up from the $5.2 billion to $5.45 billion forecast from last quarter, and adjusted EBITDA guidance of $1.1 billion to $1.15 billion.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorEndeavor closed out the final quarter of 2021 with a net loss of $16.7 million on revenue of $1.5 billion as the company’s sports, media and talent representation operations continue to adjust to a post-pandemic environment.Endeavor posted a $467.5 million loss for the full year, on revenue of $5.1 billion.The company noted that its talent representation unit, largely comprised of WME, saw double-digit revenue growth in the quarter, which is no surprise given the surge in demand and production in recent months. The return of major sports to regular and predictable schedules has also been good for Endeavor’s media rights, sponsorship and sports betting activities.“In our first year as a public company, we saw significant outperformance across our portfolio as the world began to emerge from the pandemic, with increased attendance at live events and continued heightened demand for premium content,” said Endeavor chief Ariel Emanuel.

Endeavor swung to a profit last quarter on sales up more than 60% to nearly $1.4 billion last quarter as business surged in the wake of Covid. The company, which went public in April, posted a net profit of $63.6 million from a $21.8 million loss the year before.