Ari Emanuel built his empire on ever-increasing risks

Ari Emanuel, pictured at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on March 12, 2023.

(John Shearer / WireImage)

In Hollywood, there are moguls, power brokers and dealmakers. And then there's Ari Emanuel.

Endeavor's formidable, word-for-word CEO hasn't just flipped the Hollywood script; the ultra-competent agent has rewritten the entire playbook.

Meet the changemakers shaping every cultural corner of Los Angeles. This week, we bring you the latest installment in our LA Influential series: The Establishment. These are the bosses, elected officials, and power brokers who call the shots from the seats of power.

Yes, he's the inspiration for the hyperkinetic Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage, but this caricature barely hints at the power the real Ari wields behind the scenes.

Through sheer willpower and a host of big, diversified acquisitions (Ultimate Fighting Championship, Frieze, IMG among others), Emanuel, 63, has transformed the talent agency he founded 28 years ago into a global media powerhouse with tentacles in every area of ​​entertainment, from art and fashion to film, books and television, sports and technology. In 2021, he took Endeavor public, the first of its kind in Hollywood to do so.

Such large and risky bets were initially viewed with skepticism, and so far the results have been mixed.

In September, Endeavor made its latest move by acquiring World Wrestling Entertainment and merging it with the UFC to form TKO, a publicly traded company, in a deal valued at $21.4 billion. TKO recently announced that Raw, WWE’s flagship channel, was leaving network television to join Netflix, the premier streaming platform for live sports, in a 10-year deal valued at $5 billion.

Last October, Emanuel expressed frustration with what he called the continued dislocation between Endeavors’ stock price and its profitability and revenue growth, and announced that he was reviewing his strategic options (typically a sign that a company is putting itself up for sale). At the same time, private equity firm Silver Lake, Endeavors’ largest shareholder, said it wanted to take the company private.

In April, Silver Lake got its way. Endeavor announced it was ending its three-year existence as a publicly traded company. The private equity firm will acquire all of Endeavor’s outstanding shares that it doesn’t own, for an equity value of $13 billion.

Emanuel’s vision to move beyond simply representing clients — an enviable list that includes Ben Affleck, Larry David and Oprah Winfrey — took shape when he read economist George Gilders’ book, Life After Television. The book charted a paradigm shift in which content and distribution became commodities while creators and brands held the money and power.

Emanuel has dubbed his version of Gilders' theory the “flywheel.” It's his other favorite f-word.

How it works is that Endeavor not only represents talent and brokers deals, but through its vast portfolio of properties, it can distribute content, license products, and produce live events. By owning a piece of every segment of the entertainment industry, Endeavor has the ability to create multiple avenues for growth. At the same time, this strategy has positioned the company to compete head-on with studios and streamers amid new dynamics that have reshaped the industry.

Emanuel is one of Hollywood's most powerful and outspoken executives.

In May, he denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for his resignation while receiving the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award. Bibi Netanyahu is a failure, he said in a speech that lambasted his leadership since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7.

But perhaps in a city where proximity to power is the next best thing to actual power, it’s telling that the guest list for Emanuels’ 2022 St. Tropez wedding to fashion designer Sarah Staudinger has become a barometer of one’s influence. Are you an Endeavor A or B client? asked fashion insider newsletter The Ankler, once the invites went out. I guess you know by now.