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Entertainment conglomerate Endeavor is exploring the sale of some of its high-profile events businesses, including the Frieze art fair and tennis tournaments in Miami and Madrid.
Endeavor, controlled by Hollywood powerbroker Ari Emanuel and investment firm Silver Lake, said on Thursday it had hired merchant bank Raine Group to review a potential sale of those operations and other events.
The company in 2016 bought a 70 per cent stake in Frieze, which attracts global art collectors to its fairs in London, New York, Los Angeles and Seoul.
Endeavor took over the rest of Frieze in the second quarter of 2023, even as the art market faced a downturn, shrinking 4 per cent to $65bn last year, according to the Art Basel/UBS Art Market Report 2024.
The review comes after Endeavor agreed to sell three other businesses to TKO Group, the newly-listed company which it controls, in a $3.25bn deal announced earlier on Thursday.
TKO, which owns Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment, is buying sports agency IMG, hospitality business On Location and the Professional Bull Riders league from its largest shareholder in an all-stock transaction.
Endeavour’s latest manoeuvres come as Silver Lake prepares to take the company private, streamlining its operations to focus on talent representation business WME.
TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro had flagged a pending reorganisation, telling reporters at a conference in London last week that Endeavour’s future as a private company would be built around its “sweet spot of representation” while TKO would be on the lookout for businesses that could “further power what we already do”.
Endeavor went public in 2021 but its share price meandered as investors struggled with its complex ownership structure and the wide range of businesses it held, from talent management and live events to mixed martial arts.
TKO shares were down 8 per cent on Thursday.
Endeavor acquired WWE, the pro-wrestling group led for decades by Vince McMahon, in April last year, and merged it with UFC into TKO, floating the business in September 2023.
Shapiro on Thursday said the addition of PBR, On Location, and IMG would help the group strengthen its position in premium sports.
Endeavor expects to own roughly 59 per cent of TKO on completion of the $3.25bn acquisition, which is expected to take place in the first half of 2025. The group said in August that it was also planning to sell sports data and technology businesses OpenBet and IMG Arena.
TKO said it had created a special committee of independent directors to review, negotiate and consider the proposed deal. The group also set out plans to return up to $2bn to holders of its class A common stock through a buyback programme, and pay a quarterly cash dividend worth $75mn.
Additional reporting by Josh Spero in London