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Elon Musk is asked to oversee the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a group of Hollywood agents and the Miss Universe pageant.
What could possibly go wrong?
The eccentric Tesla CEO, happy to Twitter, plans to join the board of directors of Endeavor – the Hollywood conglomerate controlled by Ari Emanuel that has a majority stake in the UFC, as well as the talent agency WME and the Miss Universe global beauty pageant, a title deposit revealed Wednesday night.
The so-called S-1 filing revealed that Endeavor is seeking to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “EDR”. He has raised nearly $ 1.7 billion from a number of high profile private investors including Elliott Management from billionaire Paul Singer, MSD Capital from Michael Dell, Silver Lake, Tencent and Third Point.
The filing confirmed the Post’s report last week that he intended to file an IPO application early next month as part of a deal to increase his controlling stake in the UFC to 100%. Endeavor canceled an IPO in 2019 a day before its shares were supposed to be listed, citing weak demand.
In Wednesday’s filing, however, Endeavor only vaguely explained why he thought adding the controversial Musk to its board would be a good idea.
In addition to Musk’s “professional background and experience running a public company,” Endeavor cited his “previously held senior management positions, his service on other public company boards. and his experience in starting, growing and integrating businesses. ”
However, Los Angeles-based Endeavor also quickly admitted that Musk has a difficult corporate governance record. That includes his infamous August 2018 tweet that he planned to take Tesla private for $ 420 a share.
The market-scrambling tweet – which amounted to a joke because ‘420’ is slang for marijuana consumption – fined Musk $ 20 million and was banned as Tesla chairman by the SEC for two years, Endeavor acknowledged in its Wednesday securities filing.
Nonetheless, Endeavor added, “There is no restriction on Mr. Musk’s ability to serve as an officer or director on a company’s board of directors.”
According to sources familiar with the situation, Musk and Emanuel have common ties including Egon Durban, co-CEO of private equity firm Silver Lake. Musk consulted with Durban, which helped fund Michael Dell’s buyout of his IT company, as he pondered the idea of privatizing Tesla. At the time, Musk also spoke to Dell, himself, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Meanwhile, as reported exclusively by The Post, Silver Lake owns a 35% stake in Endeavor and a 20% stake in the UFC. Endeavor is looking to redeem those stakes and take 100% control of the UFC as part of its IPO offering. Dell also owns a 2% stake in the MMA company.
Musk also has other fortuitous ties to Endeavor. Pop star Grimes, his girlfriend and mom, is picked up by WME. The couple have also been spotted together at UFC matches, and UFC President Dana White has tweeted with Musk. Recently, White told reporters he thought the Tesla CEO was a “badass” for reopening the Tesla car manufacturing plant in California during the pandemic.
“Didn’t he open it and say come and arrest me?” Love it, ”White said at a press conference last May.
Musk has also appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast on several occasions, smoking weed at times, to chat on a host of topics that have included MMA. In a recent interview, Musk told a surprised Rogan that he practiced martial arts as a child and was a fan of ‘early MMA fights’, especially the UFC hall of fame fighter. Royce Gracie.
“It [Gracie] was winning against much bigger people and that sort of thing. And it was just like, “Whoa, that’s cool,” Musk said. “I sent my kids to jujitsu because they were like, I don’t know, six years old.
Endeavor also revealed in its file that Fawn Weaver, an investor and author of “Happy Wives Club,” will also be joining the board.
According to the record, Endeavor generated $ 3.5 billion in revenue last year and recorded a net loss of $ 625.3 million. This represents a turnover of 4.6 billion dollars the previous year and a net loss of 530.7 million dollars.
A representative for Endeavor declined to comment on Wednesday.
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