Listed company Endeavor will integrate the event division of talent agency IMG with on-location, a sports and music ticket sales company, the company said Wednesday.
Top on-location executives run an integrated company. Paul Caine, a former Bloomberg executive and advertising platform Magnite, who has been running OnLocation for two years, will be president of the new division. Jon Lavallee, Chief Operating Officer of PrimeSport, a ticketing company acquired by OnLocation in 2017, retains the title of Chief Financial Officer of the merged company. A layoff is not expected as part of the restructuring, according to an Endeavor representative. (The Beverly Hills-based company does not categorize its employees by department, but has a total of 7,700 staff worldwide.)
Ari Emanuel-led Endeavor acquired Onlocation in January 2020 for a $ 660 million deal, months before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, canceling a series of live events and doing business. Caused an economic blow to. The company is an NFL hospitality partner, working on events next to the Super Bowl, such as this year’s Bud Light Music Fest in Los Angeles a few days before the big game, PGA, NCAA, and its brother UFC. On Location is also a hospitality provider for the Olympic Games in Paris, Milan and Los Angeles.
Endeavor’s Events, Experiences and Rights division, which houses On Location, generated $ 825.8 million in quarterly revenue and $ 357.3 million in WME-led agency revenue. On the other hand, it is the largest segment in the conglomerate. Rejuvenating Locations at the Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four and IMG’s Freeze LA Art Festival and Miami Open Tennis Tournament Event, the company noted in its May 12 earnings disclosure that it is driving unit quarterly revenue. did.
In this year’s inflationary environment (consumer prices rose 8.6% year-on-year), the live event business is being monitored again. Endeavor President Mark Shapiro was asked by Credit Suisse panel moderator Megan Durkin at a meeting in mid-June if a slowdown could be expected at a live event with soaring prices.
“In the long run, we can’t continue this way,” Shapiro said on June 14, but “it’s seen by both the brands spending around the event and the patrons who actually visit the event.” “No.” Endeavor said this year’s Super Bowl offer was the most profitable on-location record, and the Golf Masters Tournament and events around the NCAA Final Four “exceeded expectations.”
“When we move to the IMG event side and WME, the music festival is far ahead of plan and is significantly 20% ahead of what we thought we were at this stage in terms of sold out,” Shapiro said. I’m here. ” Executives added Broadway, but comedy shows and music lag behind in the recovery of live events.
As part of a decade of rapid growth, the then-named WME acquired the sports, fashion and event-focused IMG for over $ 2 billion in 2014. The IMG Events department lists partnerships for major gatherings such as Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland Events in the UK, London Fashion Week, Taste of London Culinary Festival, Rugby World Cup and Sneaker Con.
“Integrating these two dynamic businesses will help enhance our consumer experience within our extraordinary global event portfolio,” said Wednesday’s restructuring Shapiro. “Paul and John have been brilliantly leading the on-location revival from the pandemic. We are confident that the full support of the Endeavor Network will enhance these two highly complementary businesses.”
After an attempt to scuttle in the fall of 2019, Endeavor was released on the New York Stock Exchange in late April last year. Since January 3, the first day of trading this year, the company’s share price has fallen by about 40%, dropping from 34.81 per share to 20.83 at the end of the market on June 28.