Endeavor

Endeavor started on one premise: content creators would gain value. In 1995 Ari Emanuel and three partners started Endeavor with four agents, a table and a phone, betting that more television would chase the same number of people making content.

A boss gave him George Gilder's Life After Television, and Ari called Gilder directly to learn how distribution would change. That premise was all the founders needed to start.

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Treat a merger as a takeover and weaken the target first. In 2003 William Morris's leaders laughed at a deal, so Ari and Patrick Whitesell spent four years poaching its clients and agents and listening for dissent. When a top William Morris agent reopened talks, the deal closed in about six months.

A Harvard professor told Ari there is no such thing as a merger, only a conqueror and a conquered. Egon Durban's capital later let the founders give everyone an economic incentive and then take control. Ari calls his own play "a horrible game of chess."

David Senra

Ari's best deal came from pushing through fear on Geffen's advice. David Geffen told him to merge with William Morris, "get in traffic and get hit." The merger cost $44 million in buyouts and became his best deal.

David Senra

Own an asset instead of only representing clients. Ari asked why Mike Ovitz, at his peak, never bought another business to add a leg to his stool. He, Whitesell, Mark Shapiro and Durban decided to own an asset, adding events, sports, production and licensing to representation through IMG and then the UFC.

The agency already negotiated rights with networks worldwide, and Ari expected streaming to shift from subscriptions to ad-supported plans, with sports keeping viewers engaged. "One of the things that keeps people engaged was sports."

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Pick a capital partner who learns the whole business. Durban, met through a fundraising favor for Ari's Rain merchant bank fund, asked for Endeavor's numbers and three weeks, then returned with an offer Ari could have signed as is.

Durban had sold Skype to Microsoft and grasped that content needs a distribution platform. Ari credits him with the idea of adding events, production and licensing, and says he "learns everything about the company."

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Overbid decisively, because nobody remembers the extra money. After IMG owner Teddy Forstmann died, Durban pushed to buy it while Ari doubted a private equity firm stood a chance. Durban's rule was to bid $400 million over the rival's $1.9 billion, and Endeavor bought IMG for $2.4 billion.

Ari had already been trying to raise about $2 billion himself, with Mike Batista and Martin Sorrell. He says they had the idea but lacked the money and the right partner.

David Senra

Insulting founders over what they built nearly lost the partnership. When the UFC asked to double its fee as the network's highest-rated show, the Spike side told Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta "We made you" and that they would find somebody else. Ari then took the UFC to Fox.

Ari's view: "You don't insult somebody from what they created as if you can just recreate Dana White."

David Senra

When no buyer would renew the rights, Ari bought the UFC. Ari expected Fox to renew four years later, but Murdoch's sale to Disney removed Fox's need, the AT&T deal stalled and Comcast had enough sports. That dead end led to the purchase.

David Senra

Asking the seller to name his number set the price. Lorenzo would not commit, so Ari asked what number would make him happy; it started with a four. Endeavor paid $4.2 billion, a little less than rivals offered, because Dana wanted a buyer who loved the sport.

Ari had known the company for 20 years and run license-fee math. Michael Dell supplied preferred equity and KKR's founders backed Durban. Critics called it the most expensive deal in sports history, and through Brexit and market turmoil Ari got physically sick from the stress while Durban held steady.

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After closing, there was nobody to sell the rights to. Fox formally passed, Netflix was not yet in sports, and an Amazon deal of about $260 million negotiated over four months came back at about $140 million.

John Skipper at ESPN strung them along. Ari thinks Jeff Bezos would not override a team that had misjudged the numbers.

David Senra

A new ESPN executive needing direct-to-consumer content closed it. When Kevin Mayer took over and wanted a direct-to-consumer play, a WhatsApp offered the $300 million asked, the number in Ari's pro forma, with four months left. The deal took about three and a half months.

Ari slid the phone to Shapiro mid-pitch to Viacom's Bob Bakish and ended that meeting.

David Senra

Bluffing for exposure and asking for more made it a home run. With no other buyer, Dana refused fewer than ten episodes on ESPN, and Bob Iger told Jimmy Pitaro to give them ten. At the celebration Ari raised the pay-per-views, which Iger had not known were available, and ESPN bought them that Monday in a seven-year deal.

The seven-year ESPN deal was worth almost the $4.2 billion purchase price. Ari says it proved direct-to-consumer was coming and only needed consolidation.

David Senra

Constant calls to interesting people create openings no plan could. Ari reads about someone, such as Michael Rapino or Elon Musk, and calls until they call back. One introduction to Marc Andreessen led to Egon Durban.

He still starts calls at 5 a.m. When his CFO panicked over a fundraise, he said to stop telling stories and keep making the calls.

David Senra

Commit fully with no plan B. Ari says it was "agency or die" and agrees with Bezos that plan B should be to make plan A work.

"I never had a plan B."

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Letting go of rage made him calmer without costing ambition. A car crash at 32 and later stress-related illness led him to therapy, meditation and 5-MeO-DMT. He now treats time off as what makes him sharper.

"I realized that rage and anger and the way I was operating the business, you could never get to really big heights."

David Senra