EDR - Endeavor Group Holdings IPO: What Investors Need to Know
This week, Hollywood agency Endeavor Group Holdings (NYSE: EDR) will be going public on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EDR. Founded by Ari Emanuel and several partners from Hollywood Agency ICM in 1995, Endeavor initially began as a boutique agency in order to focus on television. Current co-CEO Patrick Whitesell, with expertise in films, joined the firm in 2000, marking the first stage of Endeavor's growth from its niche roots into a global powerhouse.
Endeavor has since grown into an industry giant through a slew of acquisitions, the most consequential of which was the merger with the William Morris Agency in 2009 during the depths of the Great Recession. Other notable acquisitions include the 2014 acquisition of IMG Worldwide Holdings, a sports and modeling agency and event production company, as well as the 2016 purchase of 50.1% of Zuffa Parent, which owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed-martial arts league. Other smaller, recent acquisitions include arts event and media company Frieze, professional bull-riding league PBR, and streaming services tech company NeuLion. Endeavor also formed Endeavor China in 2016.
Under Emanuel's lead, Endeavor has become a huge platform encompassing talent management, content development, marketing and licensing, distribution and sales, event management, and direct-to-consumer streaming services. For pop culture fans, Emanuel was actually fictionalized by Jeremy Piven as "Ari Gold" in the HBO show Entourage as a hard-charging, foul-mouthed, Machiavellian caricature of a Hollywood agent.