Global sports and entertainment company Endeavor, the parent company of Frieze, was officially acquired by the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners on Monday at an equity value of $13 billion. The Endeavor Group, which also has a controlling ownership stake in UFC and WWE parent company TKO, has been renamed WME Group, and founding CEO Ari Emanuel is now executive chairman.
Endeavor’s stock prices had been decreasing since going public in 2021, leading the company to sell some of its businesses, including OpenBet, and exploring the idea of selling Frieze. In October 2023, it declared it would initiate a formal review to evaluate strategic alternatives. As a response, Silver Lake announced it was working towards a proposal to take the company private, and in April 2024 it entered an agreement to purchase the outstanding shares of Endeavor that it did not already own.
Speaking about the acquisition, Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, said: ‘This remarkable moment—and the even more exciting future it launches—is thanks first and foremost to Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, and to the relentless and ambitious strategic vision they have shared for more than twenty years to build Endeavor into a global powerhouse across talent, brands, and IP spanning entertainment, media, and sports. Silver Lake is proud and honored to be their partners since 2012 as they have continued to build the company. Over this period, revenue has grown by twentyfold. Silver Lake has previously invested on six separate occasions to support Endeavor and now, with this latest investment, it is the single largest position in our global portfolio.’
While the future of Frieze’s ownership remains uncertain, Frieze Masters has just announced that it has selected Emanuela Tarizzo as its next director, taking over the role from Nathan Clements-Gillespie.
This story was amended on 25 March after Endeavor contacted ArtReview. The previous version erroneously stated that Endeavor went public in 2019; they in fact went public in 2021. It was also updated to reflect that the Endeavor Group has a controlling ownership stake in TKO.
