When the leadership of Endeavor, including CEO Ari Emanuel, took the stage at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, it marked the first time a talent agency has ever been a part of a publicly traded company.
Emanuel tried to go public with Endeavor in the fall of 2019. That attempt failed, but this second attempt was a success. In the time between the two tries, Emanuel added Tesla CEO Elon Musk to the company’s board of directors.
Endeavor also made plans to buy out the rest of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) it doesn’t already own. While the famous talent agency WME is a part of Endeavor, the parent company is not positioning itself as an agency, but rather staked its future in the streaming business and live events like UFC.
While going public has always been Emanuel’s dream, all eyes are now on the CEO — who famously inspired the character of Ari Gold on “Entourage” — to see how he’ll fare as the head of a publicly traded company.