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☆ Moneyball-Plus: What Happens When Investors Treat Athletes Like Startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Joseph Bien-Kahn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

What if athletes could sell a percentage of their future earnings to investors, the same way tech entrepreneurs offer a stake in their promising new ideas in return for venture capital? "We look at the game very, very differently than everyone else," Schwimer tells the pitcher. Finlete is launching a fund that allows fans to buy shares in a prospect's future earnings. What if you could sell a share of your future earnings, he asked, for $10,000? Today, he says, more than 80% of the players BLA has invested in are outside the league's top 300 prospects.

Persons: They're, Michael Schwimer, —, Schwimer, BLA, haven't, Fernando Tatis Jr, We've, it's, Daniil, David Liberman, Garrett Broshuis, he'd, He'd, Houdini, Christian Petersen, Erik Kratz, Kratz, Cole Hamels, Hamels, Sean M, Marvin Bush, George W, Bush, Paul DePodesta, bankroll BLA's, Bill Miller, Miller, HBO's, Michael, Jeff Bezos, Bezos, I'd, I'm, Steven Duncker, Goldman Sachs, Elly De La Cruz, Dylan Buell, phenom, Scott Boras, Yermín Mercedes, Francisco Mejía, countersue Mejia, Gervon Dexter, they're, Dexter, Wharton, He's, he'll, isn't, scoffing, he's Organizations: Philadelphia Phillies, Big League, San Diego Padres, Benchmark Capital, Sports, Wharton Sports Business, MLB, University of Virginia, Partners, Phillies, Getty, AAA, Arizona Fall League, Ritz Carlton, Cleveland Browns, Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Big League Advance, Chicago Bears, University of Florida, Huntsman, NCAA Locations: Maryland, Philadelphia, United States, baseball's, Latin America, America, Dominican Republic, Cleveland, Florida

Putting a price on celebrityIn buying a majority stake in the powerhouse Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency, François-Henri Pinault showed that high-ticket M.&A. is a game that more than one French luxury billionaire can play. Acquiring CAA — which represents stars including Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Pinault’s wife, Salma Hayek Pinault — underscores Pinault’s ambitions, and reinforces the growing importance of celebrity in the luxury sector. Like his archrival, Bernard Arnault of LVMH, Pinault used a series of acquisitions to assemble the luxury empire now known as Kering, starting with Gucci and later adding Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen and more. The agency will be run separately from Kering; Bryan Lourd, the superagent who represents Scarlett Johansson and Brad Pitt, will become C.E.O.

Persons: Henri Pinault, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Pinault’s, Salma Hayek Pinault, Bernard Arnault, Pinault, Saint, Bottega, Alexander McQueen, —, Bryan Lourd, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt Organizations: Hollywood, Creative Artists Agency, CAA, Gucci, Puma Locations: Bottega Veneta, Kering

☆ Searching for Someone to Deliver a Hollywood Ending
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Brooks Barnes | More About Brooks Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The 1954 Hollywood classic “On the Waterfront” ends with unionized longshoremen on a dock. All of a sudden, an authoritative man in a fancy suit and a natty hat arrives. But the more the entertainment industry looked, the more it became clear that such a person may no longer exist. Traditional studios and the technology companies that have moved into Hollywood have different cultures and business models. There is no studio elder, respected by both sides, to help broker a deal.”

Persons: Marlon Brando, Lew Wasserman, ”, Jason E, Squire, superagent Organizations: Hollywood, University of Southern California’s School, Cinematic Arts, “ Locations: Hollywood

☆ Sergey Brin is one of 4 billionaires subpoenaed in a lawsuit about JPMorgan's links with Jeffrey Epstein, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sergey Brin was subpoenaed in a lawsuit involving JPMorgan, The Wall Street Journal reported. The US Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan over its connections with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The US Virgin Islands sued JPMorgan late last year, saying it "knowingly facilitated, sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated by Jeffrey Epstein." It hit back at the Virgin Islands' lawsuit by saying the jurisdiction did "nothing to stop" Epstein's trafficking operation and was seeking to deflect blame. The US Virgin Islands and JPMorgan didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.

☆ Vince McMahon is back at WWE to ensure a smooth sale process. Here's who might want to buy it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

WWE has hired JPMorgan to help the company advise on a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. But it remains unclear what type of role, if any, McMahon would want at WWE if he sold the company. WWE has a market capitalization of more than $6 billion after rising nearly 17% percent on Friday, buoyed by heightened sale speculation. McMahon's company already has an exclusive streaming deal with Comcast's streaming service, Peacock, and a cable TV deal with NBCUniversal's USA Network. Fox sold off most of its entertainment assets in its $71 billion sale to Disney in 2019, but WWE fits with the smaller company's sports and live events focus.

☆ A Los Angeles superagent with a team of 160 that's sold $1.6 billion in real estate this year is leaving Compass: 'It's no secret that Compass is in a difficult situation'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Aaron Kirman, a top real-estate agent, has racked up more than $1.6 billion in sales in 2022. Kirman leads 160 agents in what RealTrends, a company that ranks real-estate brokers, has called a "mega team." RealTrends identified the Aaron Kirman Group as the top-grossing mega team from Compass last year, with an annual sales volume of $1.1 billion. But the company posted a $494 million loss in 2021 during a historically hot real-estate market . "At the end of the day, it is a real-estate company," he told Insider.

☆ How Bryan Lourd became one of the most powerful people in the history of Hollywood
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +18 min

Lourd, 61, isn't a household name, but he wields a stunning amount of influence in Hollywood. Lourd's Hollywood clients aren't just A-listers, they're A+-listers: Brad Pitt. An old-fashioned talent agent who loves discussing old movies and doesn't mind pointing out the flaws in his own clients' work, Lourd has become arguably the most powerful person in Hollywood. "He's one of the most powerful people in the history of Hollywood," said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. But Lourd's clients are such bankable stars that it's equally important for Hollywood executives to be friendly with him as it is beneficial for Lourd and CAA.

☆ 'Million Dollar Listing' star Fredrik Eklund, who has 1.4 million Instagram followers, says 'social media isn't so effective anymore' for new real-estate agents
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-02 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Younger agents should spend their time on old-school methods like mailers, he advised. He's not abandoning social media, though. The only paths to success right now for agents on social media fall between the two extremes, he said. Eklund, however, has no plans to abandon social media. The superagent believes that a new generation of apps won't solely be social media, but instead will be real-estate apps with a "social aspect" to them.

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