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Endeavor Group's Ariel Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell. Photo by Alex J. Berliner/ABImages via AP ImagesWhat’s Next for Endeavor?
The entertainment conglomerate run by Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell is seeing parts of its business reopen, after the pandemic shuttered movie productions and live events. But concerns about the firm’s hefty debt load and strategy remain.
For most of the past year, everything that could go wrong for Endeavor Group Holdings did go wrong.
The entertainment firm—which owns everything from a controlling interest in Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed martial arts league, to WME, the powerful Hollywood talent agency that represents Matt Damon and Justin Timberlake—saw the coronavirus pandemic blow up its business, as the lockdown shuttered live sports and movie productions. Last fall, Endeavor yanked its initial public offering. And before the firm secured a $260 million loan at a steep interest rate last month, questions about Endeavor’s financial condition were the talk of Hollywood.