Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor to Go Private
Endeavor, the sports and entertainment company led by the Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, said on Tuesday that it planned to go private with the help of Silver Lake, the investment firm that has been its longtime financial backer.
Under the terms of the deal, Silver Lake will buy the shares in Endeavor that it doesn’t already own for $27.50 a share in cash. That price is 55 percent above where Endeavor’s shares were trading on Oct. 25, the day before the company said it was weighing deal options.
The deal values Endeavor, including its debt, at $13 billion.
The long-awaited transaction is meant to usher in a new era for Endeavor, whose ambitious growth story failed to gain traction on Wall Street.
For more than a decade, Mr. Emanuel and his business partner, Patrick Whitesell, had sought to turn what began as a talent agency — with clients like Dwayne Johnson and Ben Affleck — into a new kind of media powerhouse.
With the backing of Silver Lake, one of the biggest investors in technology and media companies, Endeavor went on to buy a string of businesses, including the IMG talent agency, Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment. It combined U.F.C. and W.W.E. into a new company, TKO Group, that went public last year.
“We believe this transaction will maximize value for all of Endeavor’s public stockholders and are excited to continue to unlock and invest in the growth opportunities ahead as a private company,” Mr. Emanuel said in a statement.
