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Talent agency Endeavor Group is being taken private at an equity value of $13bn after three years of lacklustre performance as a listed company.
Private equity firm Silver Lake said on Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $27.50 per share in cash for the Hollywood powerhouse. The price is a 55 per cent premium to where Endeavour’s stock was trading in late October, when the sports and entertainment business led by Ari Emanuel said it was exploring strategic alternatives.
Silver Lake already controls about 71 per cent of Endeavour’s voting rights. The firm has decided to take the business private less than a year after it inked a $21bn deal to merge Endeavor’s mixed martial arts league United Fighting Championship with World Wrestling Entertainment.
As part of the transaction, Endeavor became a separate talent agency but kept a controlling stock interest in the merged combat sports company, called TKO, on its balance sheet. TKO is not included in the deal and will continue to be a public company.
The split failed to boost Endeavor’s share value, which fell by about 25 per cent between its listing in April 2021 and last October.
Including Endeavor’s majority stake in TKO, Silver Lake put the consolidated total enterprise value of the business at $25bn, making it one of the largest private equity takeovers in the past decade.
California-based Silver Lake has focused on larger takeovers in recent years, with co-chief executive Egon Durban telling the Financial Times last year that the group was focused on “all-in bets.” In 2023 Silver Lake acquired software provider Qualtrics for over $12bn and privatised European technology company Software AG for about €2.6bn.
“We believe this transaction will maximise value for all of Endeavour’s public stockholders and are excited to continue to unlock and invest in the growth opportunities ahead as a private company,” Emanuel said.
Emanuel will roll his equity holdings into the privatisation alongside other Endeavor executives. A new group including Mubadala, Michael Dell’s family office, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Lexington Partners will also invest cash into Endeavor.
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