Ari and Egon Take the Bromance Private

ari emanuel
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for LACMA
Matthew Belloni
April 5, 2024

Honestly, I was kinda hoping there’d be some fireworks during today’s Endeavor town hall discussing the company’s long-discussed move to go private. Instead, the meeting was brief and virtual, I’m told—mostly just Ari Emanuel, Patrick Whitesell, and Mark Shapiro thanking their 10,000 or so employees. It was also a chance for Whitesell to try to assuage concerns that the disclosure of his new $250 million venture opportunity—his first without Emanuel since the agents began working together at InterTalent in the early ’90s—means he’s got one foot out the door. A separate meeting followed with a couple hundred pre-I.P.O. equity holders, with executives revealing that once the transaction closes, shareholders will be cashed out for at least 90 percent of their vested pre-I.P.O. shares.