Endeavor, the parent company of OpenBet, has agreed a $13 billion deal with its biggest investor, Silver Lake, to go private.

The private equity firm will pay $27.50 for 100% of the outstanding shares that it does not already own. This represents a 55% premium on the unaffected share price of $17.72 in October when Silver Lake first signaled its intention to take the company private.

Silver Lake announced it was working to take Endeavor private after the firm confirmed that it had begun a review to explore alternatives that better value the company.

“Together, we have built and grown Endeavor from $350 million in annual revenue when we first invested in 2012 to nearly $6 billion in consolidated revenue today. Now, Endeavor can take advantage of its unique core platform to meet the dynamic forces driving growth in content, sports, and live events with bold vision. Consistent with our mission and underscored by this commitment being among the largest in Silver Lake’s history, we are all in on working with the Endeavor team and our trusted anchor investors to create value by accelerating growth at scale,” said Silver Lake Co-CEO and Endeavor Chairman of the Board Egon Durban.

The transaction will be financed through new and reinvested equity from Silver Lake as well as capital from additional investors including Mubadala Investment Company and DFO Management.

The parties signed the agreement after receiving formal approval from Endeavor’s executive committee and a special committee formed to review the deal. It is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

“Since 2012, Endeavor’s strategic partnership with Silver Lake and Egon Durban have been central to our evolution into the global sports and entertainment leader we are today. We believe this transaction will maximize value for all of Endeavor’s public stockholders and are excited to continue to unlock and invest in the growth opportunities ahead as a private company,” added Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel.

At the time Endeavor insisted that TKO Group Holdings, which owns the WWE and UFC, was not for sale and this is still the case as the company confirmed that TKO will remain a publicly traded entity.

It is yet to be seen what will happen to OpenBet, which recently merged with Endeavor’s data business division IMG Arena, however when the strategic review was announced in October the public markets were positive about the move.

Nuvei also goes private

Endeavor is not the only company to go private this week. Yesterday Advent International confirmed it had struck a deal to take payment technology provider Nuvei private.

Advent will acquire all issued and outstanding subordinate voting shares and multiple voting shares for $34.00 USD per share which values the Canadian fintech firm at $6.3 billion.

As part of the deal, Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer will remain in charge and retain 24% of equity in the resulting private company. Investors Novacap and CPDQ will also retain 18% and 12% equity respectively.