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Private equity group Silver Lake has completed a $25bn takeover of Endeavor in a deal that will shift power to financiers and lead to chief executive Ari Emanuel ceding operational control at the talent agency that helped shape modern Hollywood.
Emanuel will become executive chair of WME Group, the renamed Hollywood talent agency, while longtime executive Mark Shapiro will oversee its daily operations. The changing of the guard at WME follows last week’s news that longtime United Talent Agency chief Jeremy Zimmer would exit from Hollywood’s third-biggest talent agency.
Both moves underscore the challenges facing Hollywood, as agencies and the actors they represent grapple with the shift towards online streaming, the threat of artificial intelligence and a business still recovering from labour strikes and a pandemic that shifted audiences further away from cinemas.
Emanuel is a larger-than-life figure in Hollywood, having worked his way up from the mailroom at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to become one of the power brokers who has defined the US entertainment business over the past three decades. He inspired the tenacious, foul-mouthed character of Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage.
Emanuel co-founded Endeavor in 1995, working from an office that sat above a hamburger restaurant in Los Angeles. Through a series of deals, he built the group into an entertainment giant with clients including Martin Scorsese, Ben Affleck and Oprah Winfrey. Patrick Whitesell, WME’s other co-founder, was viewed as a peacekeeper, balancing Emanuel’s hard-charging ways.
Silver Lake in 2012 bought a minority stake in Endeavor’s predecessor and, through a flurry of acquisitions, the duo built the company into a sprawling global media group spanning mixed martial arts, sports betting, live events and even bull riding.
But while his relentless ambition propelled him to the upper echelons of Hollywood, Emanuel struggled to convince Wall Street of Endeavor’s value after its 2021 initial public offering.
The stock largely failed to exceed its IPO price until the company launched a sale process that culminated with Silver Lake and its investors taking full control. Meanwhile, the value of rival talent agency CAA soared after being acquired by French billionaire François-Henri Pinault for more than $7bn in 2023.
By taking the company private again, Silver Lake is working to simplify Endeavor’s business, refocusing the talent agency on representing sports and media celebrities, and brands.
In 2023, Endeavor split off its combat sports unit Ultimate Fighting Championship through a merger with World Wrestling Entertainment. That business, which Emanuel will continue to run as chief, has soared in value in recent years. Dana White, the billionaire founder of UFC, has become close to Donald Trump’s administration, hosting the US president during the 2024 election campaign.
Endeavor last year agreed to sell itself to Silver Lake and the private equity group has quickly shed miscellaneous assets.
As part of Monday’s agreement, Whitesell will also step back and no longer hold a formal role with the company. He will buy WME’s football representation business and is starting a $250mn platform with Silver Lake to buy sports, media and entertainment businesses.
Emanuel and Whitesell are set to roll hundreds of millions of dollars in their Endeavor shares into the Silver Lake takeover and plan to work closely with the private equity group.
“Mark Shapiro is an impressive, hard-charging, creative and determined leader who is driving and orchestrating massive value creation,” Silver Lake co-chief Egon Durban said in a statement.
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