16 top private equity firms making bets on entertainment, from Apollo to RedBird, as media dealmakin
- Private equity firms are investing heavily in film, TV, and sports media.
- Private equity accounted for 42% of deals in the first half of 2022 vs. 24% in 2018, according to PwC.
- RedBird and International Media Investments are putting $1 billion into a media venture led by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker.
Amid the ongoing pandemic, streaming wars, and market consolidation — the latter of which keeps generating larger and larger TV and film studio conglomerates — private equity players are still stuffing cash into the entertainment industry, with bets that Hollywood has infinite stories to tell and that audiences will be willing to pay for them.
In the latest big move, Gerry Cardinale's RedBird Capital has partnered with Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments to form RedBird IMI, which is putting $1 billion into a venture led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker. Zucker — whose experience "has given me unparalleled perspective for this unique time in media," he said in a statement — will be creating companies in sports, media, and entertainment. RedBird, which holds stakes in "Top Gun: Maverick" studio Skydance and LeBron James' SpringHill, also recently backed Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production entity Artists Equity.
Despite volatility in the public markets, several partners at public equity firms told Insider they are sticking to their long-term thesis and not reacting to short-term uncertainty in equities. They're continuing to make big bets on Hollywood, and many are moving heavily into the sports arena as well.
"To be honest, I'm not planning on doing much of anything that's different," Atwater Capital founder Vania Schlogel told Insider in July. "I think a lot of times, investors — when acting as a collective — can deploy capital in a way that creates market distortions. For example, just using a concrete example, there's a big trend now of, 'Wow, the public equity markets have crashed, we've got to now push all our companies to be EBITDA-positive,' rather than focusing on growth and market share capture."
Such a trend could potentially push growth companies to focus on optimizing profitability instead of market share and doing "what they do best," Atwater added. "If you're focusing on optimizing profitability, there's the opportunity cost of maybe not growing as much as you should, or investing into the areas that you want to be," whether that's geographical expansion or projects in TV and film.
Richard Sarnoff, chairman of KKR's media and entertainment division, told Insider this summer he expected more potential for deals in the near future, "because some of the heat has come off" of once high-flying valuations. And KKR is continuing to make big bets: In October it led a $400 million funding round in Skydance that sent the production company's valuation north of $4 billion. (Along with KKR and RedBird, the Ellison family also participated in the round — Skydance was founded by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison — as did Tencent Holdings.)
Media and telecom dealmaking spiked in the first half of 2022, according to PwC, with M&A activity popping 28% year over year to 1,014 deals in the trailing 12 months. But the firm noted that activity among some major media entities has slowed "following a peak driven by content and technology acquisitions to fuel expansion of streaming services."
Insider's second annual list of the top private equity players in Hollywood highlights 16 firms — listed alphebetically — based on our reporting and conversations with investors and insiders. New additions since 2021 include Abry Partners, which took $100 million stake in Kevin Hart's Hartbeat this spring, and Stripes, which led a $225 investment in A24 in a deal that valued the indie film studio at more than $2.5 billion.
This list was originally published July 27 and was updated December 26.
Abry Partners
Abry Partners in April poured $100 million into Kevin Hart's production banner, Hartbeat — a rollup of two companies launched by the comedian, HartBeat Productions and Laugh Out Loud. In a deal valuing Hartbeat at $650 million, Abry took a minority stake in the business — with partner Nicolas Massard taking a seat on Hartbeat's board — and joined NBCUniversal as a shareholder.
"In an industry that loves to say no and close doors, I've been bullish about forging our own path and using our success to open doors for others," said Hart of the deal at the time. "We're taking the new blueprint we've built in entertainment to the next level and creating opportunities for a new generation of comedic talent."
The aim is to build an "end-to-end entertainment enterprise that creates, markets and distributes" content, Hartbeat CEO Thai Randolph told Insider in May.
Outside of Abry's newest addition to its portfolio, the Boston-based firm, founded in 1989, has over $5 billion in assets under management. Past media and entertainment investments include "Dune" production company Legendary, TV station operator Nexstar Broadcasting Group, media company and "House of Cards" producer MRC, and entertainment payroll service Cast & Crew.
Apollo Global Management
Apollo kicked off 2022 with a $760 million headline-grabbing investment in Legendary Entertainment, the production and co-finance company behind "Dune." Apollo partner Aaron Sobel told Insider in February there was more M&A to come. The company is also a backer of Peter Chernin's new $1 billion global content acquisition vehicle, The North Road Company, alongside Providence Equity Partners.
Apollo is making more moves in the content space as a named bidder for Lionsgate's pay-TV player Starz in partnership with Roku. Across the broader TMT space (Tech, Media, Telecoms) the firm's name emerged in stories about who might bid on Twitter. Apollo also was in the mix, Puck News reported, as a suitor to replace Investcorp's investment in UTA, but Swedish firm EQT emerged instead as the Hollywood agency's new largest outside shareholder.
The New York-headquartered firm helped launch a new broadband player, Brightspeed — and together with another private equity player, Standard General, acquired TV and radio station group Tegna. Apollo is also the owner of AOL and Yahoo, which it acquired from Verizon in May 2021. And the firm has a $1.6 billion agreement with SoftBank to license the Yahoo Japan trademark.
While CEO Marc Rowan runs the show, David Sambur is co-head of private equity; other media leads are Reed Rayman and Aaron Sobel. Apollo, which has just over $87 billion in assets under management as of December, according to its website, has a long history of trading in and out of global media.
Together with The Walt Disney Co, Apollo sold Endemol Shine, the production company behind "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," in 2019 (Apollo and Disney held 50/50 stakes). It also had past stakes in US cable giant Charter Communications and Australia's Nine Entertainment.
Atwater Capital
Located in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, Atwater Capital was founded in 2017 by Vania Schlogel, the former chief investment officer of Jay-Z's Roc Nation and an ex-KKR exec.
The firm, which has about $250 million in assets under management, centers its investments on the media and entertainment world. They include Germany's Leonine Studios, Mad River Pictures, production company wiip, Channing Tatum's production shingle, Free Association, and Swedish soundtrack house Epidemic Sound.
As Insider exclusively reported, Atwater added to its stake in indie studio wiip — which produced HBO's critically acclaimed "Mare of Easttown" and Apple TV+'s "Dickinson" — as a follow-up to its initial investment two years ago. In February, the firm also took a minority stake in 88rising, the recording label that platforms Asian American and Asian musicians such as Joji, NIKI, and Rich Brian.
Atwater in October forged a strategic alliance with Goldman Sachs Petershill and KKR affiliates, both of which had made anchor commitments in Atwater's inaugural fund, which is focused on linked LPs with management teams in North America, Europe, and Asia.
"I find this to be the most exciting time to be investing over the next few years, because fundamentally, if I just look at my own portfolio, none of these companies are performing poorly," Schlogel told Insider. "We're going from strength to strength, because they're buoyed by these themes that continue to show up: digitization, demand for franchise-defining content — that's not going to go away."
Blackstone
Co-founded by CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who started the firm in 1985 with $400,000 of seed capital, Blackstone now manages $941 billion in assets, according to its web site. Its global head of private equity is Joe Baratta.
Baratta and the firm made a big move into entertainment in 2021 by backing two former Disney executives, Kevin Mayer and Thomas Staggs, as they formed a new media company to invest in production entities that could feed the booming streaming pipeline.
The duo's Candle Media has invested in a host of celebrity-driven production and media shingles, starting in with a $500 million cash investment in Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, in a deal valuing the company at around $900 million, and taking a minority stake (set at around $60 million according to the Wall Street Journal) in Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's Westbrook Inc.
Late last year Candle Media also acquired Moonbug, the company behind kids TV hits "CoComelon" and "Blippi," and scooped up "Fauda" producer Faraway Road Productions. And more recently, the firm grabbed a toehold in the creator economy by acquiring ATTN:, which has a studio for TikTok creators. The company also pushed into Spanish-language content acquiring Isaac Lee's Exile Content Studio.
Blackstone also has stakes in music: The firm's growth equity arm joined a $450 million round for Swedish soundtrack company Epidemic Sound in 2021; in October 2021 its tactical opportunities group partnered with Hipgnosis Song Management in a $1 billion deal to acquire and manage music rights.
The firm also has some major bricks-and-mortar holdings in entertainment. Blackstone Property Partners in August 2020 bought a 49% stake in Hudson Pacific Properties' Hollywood Media Portfolio, which comprises 2.2 million square feet of studio space in Hollywood.
Crestview
The New York private equity firm founded in 2004 has $10 billion in assets under management, with a focus on investing in media, industrials, and financial services.
One of its biggest entertainment plays — an investment in Hollywood agency ICM partners — was realized this year when the talent firm sold to rival CAA for more than $750 million. An investment in production company Industrial Media, which is behind "90 Day Fiancé," was also realized when it was acquired by Sony for $350 million.
"Top-rate content is going to continue to be a coveted asset for the streamers, and the streaming industry is enormous," Principal Patrick LaValley told Insider. "I don't know if people fully appreciate how gigantic the industry has become in such a short period of time."
Crestview is continuing to invest in media and entertainment companies along three principles: companies that make, enable, or support content; out-of-home entertainment, like sports; and broadband.
Investments that embody these include visual special effects and post-production services FC3 — which worked on "Top Gun: Maverick" — cruise operator Hornblower Holdings, and broadband engineering and construction firm Congruex.
Co-president and Partner Brian Cassidy and LaValley serve as Crestview's media specialists.
Guggenheim Partners
Guggenheim, which manages over $252 billion in fixed income, equity, and alternative strategy assets, has a history of investing in entertainment, from its stakes in trade publications The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to Golden Globe and American Music Awards producer Dick Clark Productions. The firm spun off those assets in 2015, as well as its stake in "House of Cards" studio MRC, but has since taken an interest in other media properties.
Beloved indie film studio A24 (known for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," "Lady Bird," and "Moonlight") was founded in 2012 on the back of several million dollars in Guggenheim seed money.
LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill, which in fall 2021 secured an additional investment from RedBird Capital Partners, had previously raised $100 million in a 2020 round led by Guggenheim that included the University of California and production company Sister (led by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider, and Jane Featherstone).
Guggenheim chief investment officer Scott Minerd, who heads up media and entertainment investments, sits on the board of SpringHill, which is now valued at $725 million.
KKR
Mammoth management company KKR, which has $491 billion under management as of June 30 — about $20 billion of that in private equity — made a big Hollywood splash on October 13 by leading a $400 million investment round into Skydance, the production company behind global blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick." Founded by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the independent studio was valued at more than $4 billion in the deal, with the Ellison family, RedBird Capital, and Tencent Holdings also participating in the round.
Other media investments from KKR's PE branch include Germany's Axel Springer (which owns Insider), with KKR becoming its biggest stakeholder in 2019, as well as Endeavor, Epic Games, audiobook publisher RB Media, and high school sports platform PlayOn! Sports. The firm also holds a stake in TikTok owner ByteDance.
KKR is also pouring money into song catalogs, as part of its bet on "really unique … IP that's not replicable," partner Ted Oberwager told Insider, adding, "That 'not replicable' part is pretty important."
In October 2021, the firm paid about $1.1 billion for 62,000 music publishing copyrights from Kobalt Music Publishing. The library included songs from the likes of the Weeknd and Lorde. And in January, the company snatched up the rights to John Legend's catalog as part of its partnership with music firm BMG.
And it doesn't sound like KKR is slowing down when it comes to dealmaking, despite the economic environment.
"We think there is going to be a wider palette of opportunities because some of the heat has come off and some of the valuations and multiples have reset at this point," Richard Sarnoff, chairman of KKR's media and entertainment division, told Insider.
Sarnoff and Oberwager lead investments across the media and entertainment division in KKR's Americas Private Equity business. Sarnoff also heads up education investments, while Oberwager is in charge of the gaming and sports verticals.
Providence Equity
As one of the initial financial backers of Hulu, Providence Equity Partners was arguably among the first big investors in the streaming TV revolution. The partnership between Fox and NBC to launch the streamer (Disney joined later) — masterminded by Providence founder Jonathan Nelson — kicked off the company's long association with former Fox chief Peter Chernin. The two are teaming again with Providence (along with Apollo) backing Chernin's The North Road Company.
The North Road Company houses Chernin Entertainment as well as ventures in other production companies such as the US assets of Red Arrow Studios, formerly owned by German media company ProSieben.Sat1, and Words + Pictures, run by former ESPN content exec Connor Schell.
"The fragmented and competitive streaming video industry is increasingly reliant on original productions and heavy content spending to fuel subscriber growth," Davis Noell, Providence's senior managing director, co-head North America, told Insider. "We see this leading to heightened demand for premium content from high-quality independent production companies, which is creating interesting investment opportunities." The North Road deal, he added, "represents a unique opportunity to capitalize on this trend and build a leading independent production company with global scale."
Providence is also big in live entertainment circles with investments in Ambassador Theatre Group, and has a stake in ad tech with DoubleVerify among other media sector plays. Last year, Insider spoke with executive chairman Jonathan Nelson about his company's place in the media landscape.
The company has $31 billion in capital commitments.
Raine
Raine co-founders Joe Ravitch and Jeff Sine have expertise spanning sports, TV, and film production to telecoms and tech. The LA- and NY-headquartered executives are veterans of Hollywood deal-making.
Raine is a backer of Imagine Entertainment and its powerhouse producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and has also invested in streaming measurement firm Antenna and big-name media ventures from Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs' Candle Media and Ben Silverman's Propagate to DraftKings and Soundcloud, according to its website.
Ravitch has been in the mix lately in the UK, with Raine in charge of the sale of Roman Abramovich's Chelsea Football Club to Hollywood entrepreneur Todd Boehly. Earlier this month Raine was part of a $35 million investment round for Zebedee, a payment platform for gaming.
Ravitch is on the boards of portfolio companies including Propagate and Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett's hospitality and lifestyle company, among others, while Sine has long been an advisor to SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Rupert Murdoch.
RedBird Capital Partners
Shepherding about $7 billion in assets, RedBird Capital Partners has a particular focus in the sports, media, and financial services sectors.
The firm, founded by Goldman Sachs alum Gerry Cardinale in 2014, has capital and strategic partnerships with a number of entities in the media and entertainment space, notably David Ellison's Skydance Media, whose "Top Gun: Maverick" has grossed over $1.2 billion in theaters globally since opening in late May. RedBird invested $275 million in Skydance in 2020, giving the company a $2.3 billion valuation, and in October joined a $400 million funding round, led by KKR, bringing that valuation up to more than $4 billion.
This summer, RedBird acquired Talent Systems, which specializes in software and tech to facilitate casting and auditioning on Hollywood and theater productions.
The convergence of its interest in sports and media prompted RedBird to lead a funding round in LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill in the fall of 2021, putting a $725 million valuation on the company, which also has investors in Guggenheim, Nike, Epic Games, and Fenway Sports Group. In the sports arena, RedBird has partnerships with Fenway Sports Group and the New York Yankees' YES Network.
RedBird also helped to launch Skydance's new sports unit, which alongside Amazon Studios and Mandalay Pictures is producing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's new Nike movie.
More recently, RedBird made an additional investment in the Affleck-Damon partnership, pouring $100 million into the duo's new production shingle, Artists Equity, a deal first reported by The New York Times. And in December, RedBird partnered with Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments to form RedBird IMI, which is putting $1 billion into a sports, media, and entertainment venture led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker.
Shamrock Capital
Shamrock Capital in June made a big splash in the sports-entertainment arena by leading a $50 million funding round for Religion of Sports, the sports media platform co-founded by Tom Brady, Gotham Chopra, and Michael Strahan.
Dating back to the 1970s, when its predecessor firm was founded as Roy Disney's investment company, Shamrock's growth equity fund invests in midsize media/entertainment assets ranging from cinema advertising company Screenvision Media and trade magazine Adweek, which it acquired in 2020, to sports management firm Excel.
Shamrock's content fund invests in music and filmed IP, most notably buying Taylor Swift's Big Machine catalog from Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2020.
The firm has $3.8 billion in total assets under management as of March 31, 2022 with $2.4 billion for private equity and $1.4 billion for content strategy.
President and CEO Steve Royer and Partner Laura Held, who used to work in the corporate strategy division at Disney, lead media/entertainment investments on the equity side, along with Partners Michael LaSalle, Andy Howard, and Michael Wilkins. Patrick Russo is the lead partner spearheading investment in the content sector, working with Partner Jason Sklar, who hails from JP Morgan Entertainment Industries Group.
Last year the growth fund raised $1 billion for investments in media, entertainment, and communications businesses. In early July 2021, Shamrock's content side closed a $196 million fund to make loans to music and entertainment rights holders.
Silver Lake
Silver Lake, led by co-CEOs Egon Durban and Greg Mondre, has $88 billion in assets under management and most notably took a 31% stake in William Morris Endeavor (now known as Endeavor) in 2012, allowing the talent agency to expand with the acquisition of IMG Worldwide the following year — then ultimately go public last year. (As Endeavor, the company has stakes in UFC and arts/events company Frieze.)
This summer, the private equity firm plopped a cool $500 million into Shadowbox Studios, which bills itself as a "premium soundstage infrastructure and services company" that has facilities in Atlanta, London, and Los Angeles. Using Silver Lake's capital, the soundstage operator, founded in 2017, will have 68 such facilities that collectively span 4.2 million square feet.
In the media and media-adjacent realm, Silver Lake also has investments in Fanatics Trading Cards, Genies, and Madison Square Garden Sports. It poured $1 billion into Twitter in 2020 and backed $2 billion in share repurchases for the social media platform.
All told, Silver Lake says the companies in its portfolio together produce almost $254 billion in yearly revenue.
Stripes
Founded in 2008 by Ken Fox, Stripes has grown to $7.7 billion in assets under management. Its investments range from SaaS companies, like HR startup Oyster and collaboration software Monday.com, to consumer brands, like cookie company Levain and fashion line Reformation.
It made its most notable entertainment investment this year at the right time. Just weeks before box office hit "Everything Everywhere All at Once" came out, Stripes announced it was leading a $225 million investment in indie film studio A24. The deal valued A24 — which has earned creative cred and cool points with projects like HBO's "Euphoria" — at $2.5 billion and got Fox a seat on the board.
Stripes also has stakes in digital media brand Refinery 29 and Indian ticket platform BookMyShow. Realized media investments include podcast company Gimlet — which was sold to Spotify in 2019 for a reported $230 million — and music licensing platform Audio Network — which was acquired by Entertainment One in 2019 for $215 million.
The firm has a less buttoned-up vibe than some of the longer-standing firms, and the team pages on its website feature members that are both human and canine.
TPG
With $120 billion in assets under management, TPG's vast portfolio includes a robust Hollywood element, in particular top-tier talent agency CAA as well as DirecTV, Spotify, Entertainment Partners, Fandom, Calm, Astound Broadband, and Thatgamecompany.
TPG went public at the start of 2022, telling the New York Times then that the move would offer new ways to compensate staffers and acquire new businesses. Shares are currently hovering around $27 after reaching a high of $35.40 earlier this year.
The San Francisco-based private equity firm's internet, digital media, and communications team is shepherded by a quartet of partners: sector investment leader David Trujillo, the co-managing partner of TPG Growth and TPG Tech Adjacencies; Peter McGoohan, who oversaw or had a hand in the CAA and Fandom deals; John Flynn, who was involved in the Astound Broadband, Entertainment Partners, DirecTV, Jio, and Spotify deals; and Andy Doyle, who also had a hand in the Astound Broadband, Entertainment Partners, DirecTV, and Fandom deals.
Vine
With $1 billion in investments in TV- and film-related assets, Vine was the private equity firm that in 2017 took a controlling stake in Village Roadshow Entertainment Group and nudged the company to acquire its own IP and broaden its business model. Vine also acquired Lakeshore Entertainment's TV and film library, and in 2020 bought French production company EuropaCorp.
Managing partner and CEO James Moore, who helped found the firm in 2006, oversees its strategy and management.
The firm's philosophy is essentially to be judicious and focus on strong intellectual property, and while its investments have tended to be in the traditional content market, Moore and his team are keeping one eye on the metaverse as the lines between traditional and digital content continues to blur.
ZMC
Formerly known as Zelnick Media Capital, the private equity firm founded in 2001 by Strauss Zelnick manages over $1 billion in assets.
In 2014, ZMC acquired 9 Story Media Group, the kids and family-focused company known for "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," "Wild Kratts," "Peg + Cat" and other programs, and more recently in 2021 acquired famed comedy club and improv training group The Second City, whose famous alumni include everyone from John Belushi to Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Chris Redd.
Other properties in ZMC's portfolio include live events data company Logitix, as well as "Grand Theft Auto" and "NBA 2K" game publisher Take-Two Interactive, where Zelnick has served as CEO since 2007.
Zelnick, whose background in entertainment includes tenures at Fox and on CBS' board of directors, recently brought on former Disney Television Studios president and Warner Bros. TV group exec Craig Hunegs as an operating partner.
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