Ari Emanuel has officially launched his new holding company, which will house many of the assets that used to be a part of Endeavor Group Holdings.
The new company is called MARI, and will house a number of significant tennis tournaments, including the Miami Open presented by Itaú and Mutua Madrid Open, as well as the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, Mubadala Citi DC Open, SP Open, and a number of other exhibition tennis events.
It also includes Frieze, the arts organization that Emanuel agreed to buy earlier this year, as well as a majority stake in Barrett-Jackson, the automotive auction house and lifestyle brand. The deals closed Wednesday in conjunction with MARI’s launch.
Emanuel’s WME and TKO partner Mark Shapiro will be a principal investor and board member of MARI, with Matt Cohn working as Managing Partner and Ben Enowitz joining as CFO. Barrett-Jackson founder and CEO Craig Jackson will also remain in his role.
Emanuel, of course, is also CEO of TKO and executive chairman of WME Group (he is also a freshly-minted podcast host).
The investors in the venture include a veritable who’s who of names and companies in the private equity and venture capital sectors, including Apollo, RedBird Capital Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, HSG, IMI media group, Ares Management funds, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a16z Growth, Nancy Zhang, FORTA Advisors, Main Street Advisors, Causeway Media Partners, Gannet Capital, Eric Schmidt, FMZ Ventures, Sideline Group, Curated Wealth Partners, Gaurav Kapadia, Bulat Utemuratov, and Sanjay Govil. It also includes athletes like NBA stars Luka Dončić, Anthony Edwards and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu.
For the Miami Open acquisition specifically, the ownership group behind the Miami Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium and Miami Grand Prix are also joining the consortium. The Miami Open currently takes place at the Hard Rock complex.
“Live events and experiences have never been more powerful,” said Emanuel in a statement. “As people increasingly value experiences over things—and as hybrid work and AI give us more time to enjoy them—sports, art, lifestyle, and entertainment are becoming even more essential. At MARI, we’re building on the global impact of Frieze and the success of the Madrid and Miami Opens to create new ways for audiences to come together and share their passions.”
MARI launches after Endeavor went private in a $25 billion deal with Silver Lake earlier this year, with most of the talent agency assets (minus some of its sports representation business) renamed as WME Group. IMG, On Location and PBR were sold to TKO Group Holdings, which shares ownership with WME but is run as a public company, and the remaining assets were sold off piecemeal, though many were acquired by Emanuel, as was the case with the tennis and Frieze events.
“We are excited to be a key partner to Ariel Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, and their team as they build out a portfolio of experiential assets in the sports and live events industries—two key areas where our firm sees strong, continued growth. Apollo Sports Capital will work closely with the MARI team to help unlock value across the existing asset base, as well as explore additional opportunities in live events and experiences,” added Apollo partner Rob Givone.
“RedBird has enjoyed a multi-decade partnership with Ari and Mark, and we are excited to join them again in creating MARI,” added Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital. “Anchored by the iconic Miami and Madrid Tennis Opens and Frieze, MARI is well positioned from inception to capitalize on the secular growth and convergence of premium intellectual property across sports and live event Entertainment—areas where RedBird brings domain leadership and business building expertise.”