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☆ 9 investors betting millions on the rebound in live events and entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

"Live events are having a moment as consumers want to get out and about," said John Harrison, Americas Media & Entertainment lead at EY. But over the past few years, established and upstart investors have seized the opportunity to capitalize on live events spending, which is outpacing media and entertainment spending overall. PWC projects live events revenue hitting $68.7 billion in 2024, up from $66.6 billion in 2019.Insider identified nine firms, listed alphabetically, that are making significant investments in live entertainment-related companies. It most recently led a $65 million round in Dice, an events discovery and ticketing platform for live events like comedy and drag cabaret. Courtesy of Shamrock CapitalThe Los Angeles-based investment firm has a long history of backing media, entertainment, and communications businesses.

Persons: Taylor Swift, hasn't, Tait, Scott Marimow, John Harrison, there's, Harrison, Coldplay, PEHub, Bluestone Equity Partners Bobby Sharma, Michael Weschler, Bobby Sharma, Bluestone, Juggernaut, Eric Kuhn, Tre, Scott, Matt Pincus, Pincus, Marimow, Shamrock Capital Andrew Howard, Marc Geiger, Alan Waxman's Organizations: Providence Equity Partners, Yankee, Wembley, Bluestone Equity Partners, Providence, Americas Media, Entertainment, Fourier, NBA, PMY, SoFi, New York's Citi, RWS, Apple, Holland America, Capital Partners, Street Journal, Folk Media Group, CBS, Microsoft, Folk Productions, Quest Entertainment, MUSIC, Liontree, JS Capital Management, Investments, Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners, Theatre Group, Shamrock Capital, Sixth, Spain's, San Antonio Spurs, New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Sixth Street Locations: Americas, Paris, Europe, Asia, Vegas, Fiume, Wilmington , Mass, Devon , Pennsylvania, Miami , Florida, North America, Providence, US, Germany, Los Angeles, SaveLive, Spain's Real Madrid, Real Madrid's

☆ The future of live sports: hybrid or traditional?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe future of live sports: hybrid or traditional? Aryeh Bourkoff, Liontree founder and CEO, joins 'TechCheck' to discuss medias big bet on live sports.

Persons: Aryeh Bourkoff

☆ After LIV Golf, What Will Be the Next Saudi Sports Bet?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Michael J. De La Merced | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tennis is probably the best candidate for a rival tour. And while there’s a smaller cohort of stars to recruit than in golf, a rival league would need only about a dozen players for an elite tour. Some tennis stars, including fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas, have already played in Saudi Arabia at the Diriyah tennis exhibition. The threat of Saudi competition is likely one reason the WTA raised money from the private equity firm CVC Capital this year. to own a major sports series like the PGA Tour may now be to just acquire one.

Persons: Stefanos Tsitsipas, ” LionTree’s Michael, ‘, LIV, ” — Lauren Hirsch, Donald Trump Organizations: Capital, Trump, Republican Locations: Saudi Arabia, Saudi

☆ Fanatics moves one step closer to IPO, hiring Meta's head of investor relations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Ian Thomas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

While an IPO is not on the immediate horizon, the company is taking a step in the direction of preparing for one, hiring Meta's investor relations head to further build out its engagement with current and future shareholders. Deborah Crawford, who has served as Meta 's vice president of investor relations for more than eight years, is being appointed as Fanatics' head of investor relations, a new position at the company. Prior to Meta, Crawford was head of investor relations for Netflix, where she helped initiate the streaming company's first formal investor relations function, according to Fanatics. Schiffman declined to comment on the potential timing of a Fanatics IPO but confirmed the company has a goal of going public. Fanatics has seen its valuation and investor roster drastically expand in recent years, which has also helped to fuel IPO chatter.

One of the really interesting questions here – this will be fascinating – the core of linear TV is sports rights. When you look at the size and scope of the linear TV business, it's huge. Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty ImagesByron Allen, Entertainment Studios founder and CEO: I think linear TV will exist for a very, very long time. Simmons: I believe Apple, out of nowhere, will start making their own awesome televisions that have Apple TV embedded in them. We are witnessing early stages of this dynamic with deals like "NFL Sunday Ticket" on YouTube and the MLS deal with Apple TV.

☆ Streaming services and tech companies need to 'grow down' in '23, says LionTree CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailStreaming services and tech companies need to 'grow down' in '23, says LionTree CEOAryeh Bourkoff, LionTree founder and CEO, joins CNBC's 'Squawk Box' to discuss why some media companies will need to 'grow down' before they grow up, what it means to 'grow down' and what Bourkoff is telling the media elite to do.

☆ Here comes the generative AI gold rush: Creative Fabrica raises $61 million after launching design tools based on GPT-3 and Stable Diffusion. Check out its 19-slide pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Design startup Creative Fabrica has raised a $61 million Series B from Alven. The starting gun has fired for venture capitalists racing to get into what is predicted to be a hot field in 2023: anything involving generative AI. What has piqued investor interest is the startup's implementation of generative AI. "So generative AI is a very natural extension to our content library, where we can become hyper-personal." The team's "demonstrated early leadership in generative AI" was a key factor that put them in good stead for growth, said Frederic Court, founder of Felix Capital.

☆ LionTree Makes Bet on Streaming Ads in Live Sports
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Jessica Toonkel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LionTree LLC is betting that live sports is going to continue to migrate to streaming services and that advertising will follow. The boutique bank has led an investment group to take a majority stake in Transmit.Live , a five-year-old company whose technology helps insert ads into sports programming. An example is the addition of commercials on the bottom of the screen during lulls in the action.

☆ Fanatics Hires CFO for Collectibles Business After Topps Deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fanatics said this week that Greg Abovsky started as chief financial officer for the collectibles business earlier this month. As CFO, Mr. Abovsky plans to build out the division’s finance team and its trading card business as it looks to expand. Fanatics plans to expand its portfolio into culture and entertainment cards, said Mike Mahan, chief executive officer of the collectibles business. Fanatics expects its collectibles business will fare well in the coming years, despite the threat of a potential downturn. Both Mr. Abovsky and Mr. Mahan declined to comment on if and when Fanatics could list on the public markets.

☆ Intrepid bankers will find Boutique Blvd jam-packed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The situation complicates things for rainmakers considering their next steps in a weaker environment for mergers and acquisitions. Making the well-trod move from Wall Street to Boutique Boulevard will be much harder in 2023. The entrepreneurial spirit often hits investment bankers when times get tough, and their mega-bank employers start cutting staff or restricting access to the balance sheet. It's easy to see how the likes of Blair Effron’s Centerview, Robey Warshaw and Ken Moelis’ eponymous firm established themselves. Absent those kinds of industry-specific or geographic relationships, idle investment bankers may find themselves just spending more time with their families.

☆ Fanatics Hits $31 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Miriam Gottfried | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fanatics expects to complete an IPO but plans to wait until some of its newer business lines are more established. Fanatics Inc. has raised about $700 million from a group of investors, pushing the sports-merchandising company’s valuation to $31 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. About two-thirds of the new money came from parties that hadn’t previously invested in the company, including private-equity firm Clearlake Capital Group LP, which led the round, and investment bank LionTree LLC, the people said. Prior Fanatics investors such as Silver Lake, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and SoftBank Group Corp. were also among the participants, they said.

☆ Fanatics valuation hits $31 billion after $700 million investment round
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jessica Golden | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Michael Rubin's sports platform company Fanatics has raised $700 million in fresh capital, pushing its value to $31 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. In March, the company raised $1.5 billion led by Fidelity and Blackrock and Michael Dell's MSD Partners. This summer, Fanatics ventured deeper into collegiate sports, signing a long-term deal with Nike to manufacture college sports fan apparel. Rubin now has his eyes on the sports gaming market. Revenue for Fanatics, including its Lids segment, will be approximately $8 billion in 2023, according to company estimates.

☆ Read the 20-page pitch deck Kyra, a creator platform, used to raise a $15 million Series A
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It plans to use the funds to launch Kyra Platform, a service to connect brands and influencers. If they accept, they are required to post a video on TikTok and link to that video on Kyra. There is no exclusivity required of the creator — they can work on different platforms or with their own manager in addition to being on Kyra Platform. It began shifting its focus to the short-form video platform in 2019, after two years of operating primarily as a content studio on YouTube. Read 20 pages of the pitch deck Kyra used to raise a $15 million Series A round:

☆ Meet 9 top media bankers transforming the M&A landscape and driving deals for Warner Bros. Discovery, Legendary, Amazon, and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

2022 kicked off with some huge transactions, from AT&T's WarnerMedia spin-off to private equity scooping up content players. Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, and Diamond Sports Group both recently tapped big banks to explore their options. Not surprisingly, WarnerMedia was at the heart of the richest transaction fee waterfall for big banks in 2022. Moelis and LionTree were just tapped to help figure out what's next for Sinclair's Regional Sports Networks, Diamond Sports Group, while Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, also hired Moelis to shop the production company, according to Variety. There's lots of dry powder still in private equity, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, co-founder and co-president at investment bank Moelis, told Insider.

☆ 14 top private equity firms investing in sports, as a swell of funding enters the sector and helps teams, leagues, and stadiums build businesses beyond game day
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Colin Salao | Claire Atkinson | Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Private equity firms are investing more in sports teams, leagues, and other ancillary businesses. From Apollo to Sixth Street, here are 14 private equity firms betting on sports. A few factors are drawing private equity firms to the sector. And sports betting has hastily altered the landscape, opening a new sector for media, leagues, teams, and other businesses to tap. Below are 14 private equity firms — listed alphabetically by company — that have made prominent investments in sports through 2022.

☆ Meet 9 top media bankers transforming the M&A landscape as streaming video reshapes entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

2022 kicked off with some huge transactions, from AT&T's WarnerMedia spin-off to private equity scooping up content players. Company valuations are set to fall back to earth in 2023, and private equity and strategics are lying in wait. Not surprisingly, WarnerMedia was at the heart of the richest transaction fee waterfall for big banks in 2022. Joshua Grode's Legendary Entertainment, backed by Dalian Wanda and now Apollo Group, which took a stake in the studio in January. There's lots of dry powder still in private equity, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, co-founder and co-president at investment bank Moelis, told Insider.

☆ Wall Street's biggest investors can't shake a nightmare about the US economy. And that fear is much worse than a recession.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Aaron Weinman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Talk of a recession, rough inflation data, and the persistent increase in costs of certain staple goods has got Wall Street's biggest investors living in fear of an economic nightmare. Wall Street has been hit by a brutal market sell-off this year. Wall Street investors fear an economic nightmare. BMO Capital Markets is cutting jobs amid the broader downturn in dealmaking, according to Bloomberg. Private-equity investment firm Corsair has made an investment in Miracle Mile Advisors, a wealth advisory firm based in Los Angeles.

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