Creative Artists Agency Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

WME is a talent agency headquartered at 9601 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, in the Los Angeles area, that represents artists, content creators and talent across film, television, music, theatre, books, digital media, fashion, food, comedy and sports. It negotiates deals for clients, advises them on brand partnerships, production and the use of their intellectual property, and earns commissions on the work it books. Besides its Los Angeles headquarters it has offices in New York, Nashville, Chicago, Washington, Miami, London and Sydney. WME was formed in April 2009 by the merger of the William Morris Agency, whose history the agency dates back more than 125 years, and Endeavor Talent Agency, with Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell as co-chief executives. Silver Lake bought a 31.25% stake for $250 million in 2012, and WME and Silver Lake acquired IMG for $2.4 billion in 2013. In 2017 the parent was renamed Endeavor and WME continued as its talent agency, while agency deals such as Ross Yoon in 2023 extended its literary business. Silver Lake completed its take-private of Endeavor in March 2025, after which the group rebranded as the WME Group.

Suning Sports is the sports arm of Chinese retail and property conglomerate Suning Holdings Group, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and incorporated as Jiangsu Suning Sports Industry Co., a joint venture of Suning Holdings, which owned 90% at the end of 2016, and Suning Appliance Group. It built a business spanning sports media, over-the-top streaming, sports retail and youth training. Its digital platform PP Sports bought Chinese broadcast rights to major football competitions, including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Chinese Super League and, from 2018-19, exclusive television and online rights to the Bundesliga for five seasons, along with AFC competitions and WWE, earning revenue from subscriptions and advertising. It opened its first flagship fan store in Nanjing in 2017, planning 152 stores by 2020, and developed grassroots training programmes. Through its Hong Kong subsidiary Suning Sports International, it sits above Great Horizon, the vehicle through which Suning bought a majority stake in Inter Milan in 2016, and the group also owned Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning. In July 2018 Suning Sports raised a $600 million Series A led by Goldman Sachs and Alibaba, with Evergrande, Yunfeng Capital, SenseTime, CCB International and others, valuing it at about $2.6 billion. Under financial strain, Suning halted operations at its Chinese football clubs, including champions Jiangsu, in February 2021.

BSE Global (Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment) is an American sports and entertainment company in New York City that owns the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, the WNBA's New York Liberty and the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, home to both teams. It is controlled by Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, who serves as chairman and as governor of the Nets, and his wife Clara Wu Tsai. Tsai first bought a 49% minority stake in the Nets from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in 2017 and took full control in 2019 in a deal reported at about $3.5 billion; that same year he bought the Liberty from Madison Square Garden. BSE Global earns revenue from NBA and WNBA media rights, ticketing, premium seating and hospitality, sponsorship and naming rights, and concerts and other events at Barclays Center. In June 2024 Julia Koch, widow of Koch Industries co-owner David Koch, and her three children agreed to buy a passive 15% stake in BSE Global for $688 million in cash through the family's investment vehicle, valuing the company at $6 billion; the Tsais retained full control, and the Koch family received a right of first offer on any future sale of a controlling interest in either team. At the time Forbes valued the Nets at $3.85 billion.

PGA TOUR Enterprises is a for-profit commercial company created by the PGA TOUR to hold and develop the tour's commercial businesses. It was launched in January 2024 and is controlled by the PGA TOUR, the non-profit membership organisation that runs the main professional men's golf tour in the United States, with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of American sports team owners led by Fenway Sports Group, as a minority investor. The company is responsible for the tour's commercial activities, including media rights, sponsorship, tournament and fan-engagement businesses, and new media and commercial opportunities. It earns revenue mainly from the sale of television and streaming rights and from sponsorship and licensing tied to PGA TOUR events. A player equity program gives nearly 200 PGA TOUR members equity grants in the business. Its 13-member board combines PGA TOUR player directors, PGA TOUR executives and four directors appointed by Strategic Sports Group. The company is based at the PGA TOUR's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) is an American sports and venue management company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. It owns and operates the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils with their minor league affiliates, the Delaware Blue Coats and the Utica Comets, and holds a Philadelphia WNBA franchise due to begin play in 2030. It also runs Newark's Prudential Center through subsidiary Devils Arena Entertainment and the Loew's Jersey Theatre, manages non-NFL events at Northwest Stadium, and has HBSE Ventures, HBSE Real Estate and a minority stake in NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing. Its revenue comes from ticketing, media rights, sponsorship and events. HBSE was formed on 25 September 2017 by Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and Blackstone executive David Blitzer, whose groups had bought the 76ers in 2011 and the Devils with Prudential Center operating rights in 2013. CNBC valued the company at $14.6 billion in July 2025. Tad Brown, formerly chief executive of the Houston Rockets, has led HBSE since 2021, and in January 2025 it dropped its planned 76 Place arena in favour of a new arena in South Philadelphia with Comcast Spectacor.

Six Nations Rugby Ltd. is the Dublin-based organising body for international rugby union's Six Nations Championships, owned by the rugby unions of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales together with CVC Capital Partners. It runs the men's Six Nations Championship, branded Guinness M6N, the women's and under-20s championships and the Autumn International series, and centrally negotiates and manages their commercial rights. The men's tournament traces back to the Home Nations Championship of 1883, became the Five Nations when France joined in 1910 and the Six Nations when Italy joined in 2000; it is played each year from February to March, with each team meeting every other once. Revenue comes from broadcast rights, sponsorship, such as the Guinness title partnership, and other commercial rights, which are distributed to the six unions. In March 2021 Six Nations Rugby agreed a long-term strategic partnership in which CVC Fund VII invests up to £365 million, paid to the unions over five years, for a one-seventh share, while the unions keep six-sevenths, sole responsibility for sporting matters and majority control of commercial decisions. The partnership funds growth of the tournaments, brands, data and technology capabilities.

Smith Entertainment Group is a sports and entertainment holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, controlled by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and his wife Ashley Smith. The Smiths bought the NBA's Utah Jazz from the Miller family in 2020 for $1.66 billion, and SEG joined David Blitzer in buying Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake in January 2022. SEG also operates the downtown Salt Lake City arena formerly known as Vivint Arena, now the Delta Center. In 2024 it acquired the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes and launched a National Hockey League franchise in Utah, now named the Utah Mammoth. The group earns revenue from ticket sales, sponsorship, media rights, arena events and concessions across its teams and venues.

NZ Rugby (New Zealand Rugby, NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand, headquartered in Wellington with an office in Auckland. It was founded at a meeting in Wellington in April 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, affiliated to the International Rugby Football Board in 1949, and shortened its name in 2006. NZR selects and manages the national representative teams, including the All Blacks, the Black Ferns and the sevens sides, represents New Zealand in World Rugby, runs domestic competitions with its 26 provincial unions and promotes participation in the community game. It has a staff of about 90 people and is led by chief executive Steve Lancaster. Broadcasting rights are a core income source: NZR helped form SANZAAR, now shared with the South African, Australian and Argentine unions, which sells television rights for major southern hemisphere competitions. In June 2022 its provincial unions approved Project Future, under which US technology investor Silver Lake invested NZ$200 million at a NZ$3.5 billion valuation for a 5.71% to 8.58% stake in NZR CommercialCo, a new entity holding all NZR's revenue-generating activities.

Liberty Media is an American media and motorsport holding company headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, whose shares trade on Nasdaq as Formula One Group tracking stocks. Its main assets are Formula One, which it acquired in January 2017, and MotoGP organiser Dorna Sports, in which it took an 84% stake in July 2025. Both series earn revenue from race promotion fees paid by circuit hosts, media rights sold to broadcasters and streamers, and sponsorship, hospitality and licensing. In 2025 Formula One revenue rose 14% to $3.9 billion with operating income of $632 million, and MotoGP revenue rose 14% to $573 million. The original Liberty Media was spun off from Tele-Communications Inc. in 1991 under John Malone, who is now chairman emeritus; Robert Bennett is chairman and Derek Chang chief executive. The group has repeatedly reshaped itself through tracking stocks and spin-offs, splitting off the Atlanta Braves in 2023, combining its SiriusXM interest into a separate listed company in September 2024 and separating Liberty Live, holder of its Live Nation stake, in December 2025.

ONE Championship is a Singapore-based combat sports promotion and media company operated by Group ONE Holdings. It was founded on 14 July 2011 as ONE Fighting Championship by Chatri Sityodtong, who remains chairman and chief executive, and Victor Cui, and held its first event in September 2011; it took its current name in January 2015. Originally a mixed martial arts promotion, it now stages MMA, muay thai, kickboxing and submission grappling bouts, has held more than 200 events across Asia, and runs the flagship numbered series, ONE Fight Night cards aimed at North America, and the weekly ONE Friday Fights series at Bangkok's Lumpinee Stadium, launched in 2023. The company earns money from media rights, sponsorship, ticketing and digital content; its broadcast partners include Amazon Prime Video, which holds US and Canadian rights from 2022 to 2027, beIN Sports and the Seven Network. In October 2018, when its fights were broadcast in 136 countries, it raised a $166 million Series D led by Sequoia Capital with Temasek and Greenoaks Capital at an implied $1 billion valuation; it raised $150 million more in 2021 at a reported $1.35 billion valuation, and in 2022 it moved the parent company's legal domicile from Singapore to the Cayman Islands.

Matchroom Sport is a British sports promotion and media company headquartered in Brentwood, Essex, that owns, produces and promotes sporting events worldwide. Founded in 1982 by Barry Hearn, it runs businesses across 12 sports, including Matchroom Boxing, the Professional Darts Corporation, the World Snooker Tour, pool, golf and other events, and it represents athletes such as boxers Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor. The group produces more than 600 event days and about 2,500 hours of original programming a year, with a library of some 20,000 hours, and supplies content to virtually every major sports broadcaster. It earns revenue from media rights sold to broadcasters and streaming platforms, sponsorship, ticketing and event hosting fees, and athlete representation. The Hearn family controls the business, with Barry Hearn as president and his son Eddie Hearn as chairman. In May 2026 Bruin Capital acquired a 15% stake that valued Matchroom at more than GBP 1 billion, joining the board to support growth, particularly in the United States.

Alisports (阿里体育, now renamed Orange Lion Sports) is the sports arm of Alibaba Group, founded in Shanghai's Yangpu district in September 2015 by Alibaba with Sina and Yunfeng Capital. It was led from its founding by chief executive Zhang Dazhong, a former vice president of Shanghai Media Group. It was set up to apply Alibaba's e-commerce, media, cloud computing, big data and payments capabilities to China's sports industry. Early businesses included event rights and operations, ticketing, sports e-commerce and broadcasting. In 2016 it launched the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) esports tournament with the International e-Sports Federation, and the first edition drew about 63,000 participants from 125 countries. It won exclusive operating and marketing rights to the Hangzhou Marathon for 2018 to 2021 and has run China's university basketball league (CUBAL). In April 2017 it raised a Series A of about RMB 1.2 billion (roughly US$190 million) led by Yunfeng Capital. In 2022 it renamed itself Orange Lion Sports (橙狮体育) and now focuses on running and upgrading public sports venues under the 乐动力 (Le Dong Li) brand. These include centres in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

Ollamani SAB is a holding company that operates through its subsidiaries in various businesses, including the Football Business, which is the Company that owns Club America, a professional soccer team with championships in Mexico and considered one of the popular teams. Estadio Azteca is the company that owns and operates the Estadio Azteca. Games and Sweepstakes Business under the PlayCity brand, the company operates eighteen casinos in Mexico with food and beverage service, as well as a website in the one that offers sports betting and casino betting. The Company's operations are classified into three segments: Football Segment, Gaming Segment, and Publishers and Distributors Segment.

FS Development Investment Holdings is a Chinese marketing-communications group headquartered at Oriental Plaza in Beijing and listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (stock code 300071); it was formerly named Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group (Huayi Jiaxin). Its services fall into three lines: digital marketing, covering content, social-media, video, live-stream and private-domain marketing and influencer placement; experiential marketing built around brand events and interactive activities; and public relations and advertising, including brand strategy, media relations and crisis management. It runs its own AIGC tools, the DS AI Chain platform and the FlinkAI full-funnel marketing platform, and its public-relations subsidiary ranked 21st in PRovoke Media's 2024 global top 250 PR agencies. Clients are brand owners that pay fees for campaigns; carmakers supplied about 45% of 2024 revenue, with brands such as Changan Mazda, Ford, Wuling, Honor and Vivo among its award-winning accounts. In 2024 the group reported revenue of 1.22 billion yuan, down 11.5%, a net loss attributable to shareholders of 130.5 million yuan, and 787 employees. The company was founded in January 2003 and listed on 21 April 2010, raising 325 million yuan at 25 yuan a share. Chen Yongliang, its actual controller with a 10.2% stake, has been chairman since November 2020.

BlueFocus Communication Group Co Ltd provides marketing and brand management services in China and internationally. It offers marketing and brand management services across various disciplines, including strategy, digital, advertising, media, social, PR, design, branding, CRM, data, e-commerce, and mobile solutions to various multinational companies and Chinese enterprises, such as IT, automobile, consumer goods, real estate, finance, and entertainment industries.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment is an American sports and venue management company headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded on 10 June 2010 by Ted Leonsis, the former AOL executive who had owned the NHL's Washington Capitals since 1999, after he acquired the NBA's Washington Wizards and merged Lincoln Holdings with Washington Sports & Entertainment. The company owns and operates the Capitals, the Wizards, the WNBA's Washington Mystics, the G League's Capital City Go-Go and the esports team Wizards District Gaming, as well as Capital One Arena, EagleBank Arena, the MedStar Capitals Iceplex practice facility and the regional sports network Monumental Sports Network. Minority shareholders include the Qatar Investment Authority, Jeffrey Skoll, Sheila Johnson, Mark Lerner and Arctos Partners, and CNBC valued the company at $7.84 billion in July 2025. In March 2024, after plans for a $2 billion arena complex in Alexandria, Virginia, were scrapped, Washington mayor Muriel Bowser announced a deal keeping the Capitals and Wizards in the city until 2050. In December 2025 Laurene Powell Jobs sold her stake to Arctos Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority, which increased its holding.

CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA is a diversified media company that focuses on ticketing and live entertainment. The business is divided into two segments: ticketing and live entertainment. The ticketing segment produces, sells, and distributes tickets for a variety of leisure-based events. The company sells tickets for concerts, sports, and theater events, and provides travel services as well. The live entertainment business segment plans and organizes tour events, largely for music-based concerts. The company generates the vast majority of its revenue in Germany.

Fenway Sports Group is a Boston-based sports holding company that owns professional teams, stadiums and sports media assets in the United States and England. It was formed in 2001 as New England Sports Ventures by John W. Henry and Tom Werner, together with Les Otten and The New York Times Company, bought the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park in 2002 and took its current name in March 2011. In October 2010 it acquired Premier League club Liverpool FC and its Anfield stadium. The group also owns 80% of the New England Sports Network (NESN), a 50% stake in NASCAR team RFK Racing bought in 2007, the TGL golf team Boston Common Golf and the Red Sox spring-training complex in Fort Myers, Florida. It became majority owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins on December 31, 2021 and in December 2025 agreed to sell the franchise to the Hoffmann family for about $1.7 billion. FSG earns revenue from ticketing, media rights, sponsorship and merchandise across these properties. Outside partners include RedBird Capital Partners, which invested $750 million in 2021, the partnership of LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and Arctos Partners; Henry is principal owner with an estimated 40% stake and Werner is chairman.