Endeavor Plots IPO, Planning To Ride Wall Street Wave Amid WGA Drama; Guild Responds
Despite storm clouds looming over its relationship with Hollywoods guilds, Endeavor is in the early ..
Despite storm clouds looming over its relationship with Hollywoods guilds, Endeavor is in the early stages of staging an initial public offering.
The company has not offered any comment as of yet, but plans evidently call for an IPO by the end of 2019.
A year ago, the company was valued at around $4 billion. While it remains a heavyweight in talent representation, it has also expanded through its acquisition (with partners) of the UFC and also sports, fashion and events specialist IMG, making it potentially less vulnerable to the guild disputes.
In recent months, tensions have built over the increasing production activity by agencies and management firms, which guilds and clients object to as self-dealing that will harm traditional Hollywood institutions.
The WGA ripped the Endeavor plan in a statement.
“Todays announcement that Endeavor plans to become a publicly-traded company only strengthens the call for the conflicted and illegal practices of the major talent agencies to end,” the guild said. “It is impossible to reconcile the fundamental purpose of an agency—to serve the best interests of its clients—with the business of maximizing returns for Wall Street. Writers will not be leveraged by their own representatives into assets for investors.”
Going public will mean greater access to capital via the markets, but also a higher degree of responsibility to shareholders. Ari Emanuel has been in corporate-CEO mode for a while now, speaking last fall at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York. He has been making the case for Endeavor as a larger business than the commission-based shop he founded in 1995 by Emanuel and two of his ex-ICM colleagues.
