Endeavor, the majority owner of TKO Group Holdings and the parent of assets such as IMG, WME, On Location, and Professional Bull Riders (above), will again become a private entity, ending an often-frustrating run of nearly three years for the company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Completing a strategic review process that began last fall, private equity giant Silver Lake will acquire the remaining shares in Endeavor it didn’t already own, placing an equity value of $13 billion on Endeavor, a figure that rises to $25 billion when including Endeavor’s interest in TKO. Silver Lake already held about 71% of the voting power in Endeavor and had already signaled an unwillingness to sell its interest to a third party, making this latest outcome widely expected.

The effort to become a private company once again, however, stems primarily from a lack of investor appreciation of Endeavor stock on the NYSE. Shares have fallen 6% since the company’s initial public offering in April 2021, a period in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 15%, and even that overall drop for Endeavor required an 11% run-up in shares so far this year as expectations rose of the Silver Lake acquisition.

To that end, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel frequently complained about the lack of full market appreciation for the company’s extensive presence across many facets of sports and entertainment, including media and content development, league operations, athlete representation, sports betting, and major events. 

Now, Emanuel and executives for Silver Lake say the transaction provides an opportunity for the entire scope of those varied elements to be recognized economically.

“This is a very special partnership. Together, we have built and grown Endeavor from $350 million in annual revenue when we first invested in 2012 to nearly $6 billion in consolidated revenue today,” said Egon Durban, Silver Lake co-CEO and managing partner. “Now, Endeavor can take advantage of its unique core platform to meet the dynamic forces driving growth in content, sports, and live events.”

Deal Terms

Endeavor stockholders will receive $27.50 per share, a 55% premium from where the stock stood just before the company’s announcement last fall of its strategic review. A closing is not expected until the first quarter of 2025.

The Silver Lake transaction follows last year’s $7 billion acquisition of Creative Artists Agency by French billionaire François-Henri Pinault. That deal helped influence Endeavor’s thinking, and it further advanced Emanuel’s belief his company was undervalued given the breadth of its assets.

TKO, the parent company of WWE and UFC, is not a direct party to the Silver Lake acquisition and will remain a public entity, but it will continue to benefit from Endeavor’s involvement.

Larry Lucchino, a veteran baseball team executive who put his stamp on three of the sport’s iconic facilities, helped break the Red Sox’ famed, 86-year title drought and coined the term “Evil Empire” regarding the rival Yankees, has died at the age of 78.

Lucchino is most known for his 14-season run as president and CEO of the Red Sox between 2002 and ’15, during which the team won three World Series, ended the so-called “Curse of the Bambino,” and conducted more than $300 million in renovations for Fenway Park, in turn preserving the iconic ballpark for future generations. Before the ’02 arrival of Fenway Sports Group, of which Lucchino was a part, Fenway Park had been eyed for potential demolition.

But Lucchino’s legacy goes far beyond just Boston. He also helmed the Padres as president and CEO from 1995 to 2001, during which time Petco Park was funded and designed in advance of the ballpark’s ’04 opening, and also led the Orioles as president from 1988 to ’93, when Oriole Park at Camden Yards was designed and built. As a result, Lucchino has few equals in helping lead the sport’s stadium renaissance that saw a re-embrace of baseball-specific facilities with strong nods to history and asymmetrical dimensions. 

“Larry’s career unfolded like a playbook of triumphs, marked by transformative moments that reshaped ballpark design, enhanced the fan experience, and engineered the ideal conditions for championships wherever his path led him, and especially in Boston,” said Red Sox principal owner John Henry. 

A straight-talking, no-nonsense executive, Lucchino also helped give rise to a major resurgence in the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry in the early 2000s when he said of New York’s ’02 signing of Cuban pitcher José Contreras, “The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.” That nickname for the Yankees remains to this day. 

Lucchino is also the only known person to have earned World Series rings, a Super Bowl ring (won through his tenure on the Washington board in the early 1980s), and a Final Four watch having played on Princeton’s ’64–65 basketball team led by Bill Bradley. 

Big Impact

Among the other touchstones of Lucchino’s career in baseball:

• His last major chapter was as chairman of the Worcester Red Sox, commonly known as the WooSox and Boston’s top minor league affiliate. There, Lucchino led the development of the $159 million Polar Park, one of the top facilities in all of Minor League Baseball. Diamond Baseball Holdings purchased the franchise in December.
• Lucchino’s facility prowess also extended to JetBlue Park at Fenway South, the Red Sox’ spring training complex in Fort Myers, Fla., that features the same dimensions as Fenway Park and a replica of the Boston facility’s famed Green Monster. 
• During Lucchino’s Boston run, the Red Sox sold out 820 straight games, by far the longest such streak in MLB history. 
• Lucchino boasts an extensive sports industry executive tree of those he either hired or mentored, including current Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy, noted stadium architect Janet Marie Smith, and pickleball executive Mike Dee.
• Originally a lawyer by trade, Lucchino worked for the House Judiciary Committee during that panel’s investigation of the Watergate scandal, and he later joined the firm founded by Edward Bennett Williams, president and part-owner of Washington and later owner of Baltimore. 

This is the second major death among major baseball executives in the last two weeks following the recent passing of former Orioles owner Peter Angelos.