Ari Emanuel has officially launched his new Holding company, which will house many assets which were once part of Endeavour Group Holdings.
The new company is called Mari and will welcome a certain number of important tennis tournaments, including the Miami open presented by Itaú and Mutua Madrid Open, as well as the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, the Mubadala Citi Dc Open, the SP Open and a number of other out-of-competition tennis events.
It also includes Frieze, the artistic organization that Emanuel agreed to buy earlier this year, as well as majority participation in Barret-Jackson, the automotive auction house and lifestyle. Transactions were closed Wednesday in parallel with the launch of husband.
Mark Shapiro, WME and TKO partner of Emanuel, will be one of the main investors and member of the board of directors of husband, with Matt Cohn as a director director and Ben Enowitz as a financial director. The founder and CEO of Barret-Jackson, Craig Jackson, will also retain his functions.
Emanuel, of course, is also CEO of TKO and executive president of the WME group (he is also a new podcast host).
Investors in the company include a real who’s who of names and businesses in the investment capital and venture capital sectors, notably Apollo, Redbird Capital Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, HSG, Imi Media Group, Ares Management Funds, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, A16z Growth, Nancy Zhang, Advisors, Main Street Advisors, Causeway Media Partners, Gannet Capital, Eric Schmidt, FMZ Ventures, Sideline Group, Curated Wealth Partners, Gaurav Kapadia, Bulat Utemurato and Sanjay Govil. He also includes athletes like NBA stars Luka Dončić, Anthony Edwards and the star of the WNBA Sabrina Ionescu.
For the acquisition of the Miami Open in particular, the property group behind the Miami Dolphins, the Hard Rock Stadium and the Miami Grand Prix also joins the consortium. The Miami Open is currently taking place at the Hard Rock complex.
“Events and live experiences have never been so powerful,” said Emanuel in a statement. “While people are attaching more and more importance to experiences rather than things – and hybrid work and AI give us more time to take advantage of it – sport, art, lifestyle and entertainment become even more essential. At Mari, we rely on the global impact of Frieze and the success of the Madrid and Miami opens to create new ways allowing the public.
Husband was launched after Endeavor became deprived of an $ 25 billion agreement with Silver Lake earlier this year, most of the artistic agency assets (minus part of his sports representation activities) being renamed WME Group. IMG, we rent and PBR were sold in Tko Group Holdings, which shares the property with WME but is managed as a public company, and the remaining assets were sold in the spot, although many were acquired by Emanuel, as was the case for tennis and Frieze events.
“We are delighted to be a key partner of Ariel Emanuel, Mark Shapiro and their team as they build a portfolio of experiential assets in the sectors of sport and live events, two key areas in which our company is experiencing strong and continuous growth. Apollo Sports Capital will work in close collaboration with the husband team to help value in the existing active basis, as well as exploring Additional opportunities in live events and experiences, “added Rob Givone, Apollo partner.
“Redbird benefits from a partnership of several decades with Ari and Mark, and we are delighted to join them again in the creation of husband,” added Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of Redbird Capital. “Anchored in the emblematic Miami and Madrid Tennis Opennes and Frieze, Mari is well placed as soon as it is created to capitalize on secular growth and the convergence of high -end intellectual property in live sports and entertainment events – areas in which Redbird brings its leadership in the field and its expertise in commercial development.
