Posted on 09/14/2015 11:18:50 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Donald J. Trump has sold the Miss Universe Organization to the talent agency WME-IMG, the company announced Monday.
The sale, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, came after a rough summer for the organization’s Miss USA beauty pageant in which two television partners dropped the broadcast in response to comments Mr. Trump made about illegal immigrants during his presidential campaign.
NBC, a part owner of the Miss Universe Organization, backed out of the broadcast and also said that Mr. Trump would not be welcomed back as the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” (NBC announced Monday that Arnold Schwarzenegger would replace him). Mr. Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against the pageant’s other television partner, the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.
On Friday, NBC confirmed that it had sold its stake in the Miss Universe Organization to Mr. Trump. It appears that sale was just the prelude for Mr. Trump spinning off the entire organization — which includes the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants — to WME-IMG.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Deal price was undisclosed.
ROTFL. One can’t help but wonder this will provide the cash for the Presidential campaign.
I wonder how much Trump made on the fast buyback and sale?
Woo-Hoo!
“The Art of the Deal” in action!
I have looked every to find a valuation of Miss U Org, but to no avail.
Good move by Trump.
Ari Emmanuel said: Don’t know why I am doing this. After all, I hate the b!tches as much as you do, Donald.
To which Donald Trump responded: I know you hate them, but no one hates them as much as I do—particularly the smart blond one!
And that post is supposed to somehow reflect poorly on Trump—rather than on you?
I bet the ‘goodwill’ line in WME-IDG’s financials for the pageant will pop a few eyeballs if it ever becomes public.
Trump is laughing all the way to the bank.
I think this sale might indicate that he’s actually planning to win the presidency. Better to sell now, before the market for these pageants take advantage of his presidency by forcing a fire-sale of sort. Once POTUS, Trump could not be hands-on. In addition, this sale was made without a network contract in place.
Is he Rahm Emanuel’s brother?
Yup.
With Trump out of the deal, NBC might be willing to sign a new contract. In fact, that might have been part of the deal and the dropping of the lawsuit Trump had against NBC.
Gotta think Trump has to get some liquidity if he intends to run a serious, free of “big X” money, campaign.
He couldn’t sell to a conservative talent agency?
Do any exist?
I think WME-IMG had already approached Trump about a deal and he just did a quick flip to be done with it.
Liberals aren’t very good at operating something like this, and they will eventually go bankrupt.
Be sure and buy enough popcorn!
When Ari Emanuel, the 53-year-old co-C.E.O. of the powerhouse talent agency William Morris Endeavor (known as WME), wants something, he doesn't quit until he gets it. Generally seen as the inspiration for Ari Gold, the crass, overbearing talent agent played by Jeremy Piven on the HBO series Entourage, Emanuel is known for in-your-face tactics that are extreme even by Hollywood standards. CBS president and C.E.O. Les Moonves, who describes himself as “definitely a fan” of Emanuel's, says, “He is relentless to the point of ‘Ari, stop calling me. I'll make my decision when I make my decision.’ ” Moonves tells of a recent negotiation over the television show Extant: “We just recently picked it up for a second year, and Ari called me once a day for, like, three weeks. And it was like ‘Ari, I'll tell you when it's ready. I will tell you when I'm ready,’ you know. ‘Well, how are we doing? Are we close? Are we lukewarm? What's the situation?’ ”
For many years Emanuel's most enduring obsession was to combine his talent agency, whose clients include movie and television stars such as Ben Affleck, James Franco, and Oprah Winfrey, with IMG, the sports-entertainment-and-marketing giant that has worked with such elite athletes as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras, and Martina Navratilova. Emanuel's quest to own IMG began in earnest in the summer of 2004, when he and others had dinner with private-equity mogul Teddy Forstmann at the fashionable (now defunct) Midtown Manhattan restaurant Davidburke & Donatella, according to a former Forstmann partner. The two men discussed how Forstmann's firm, Forstmann Little & Company, might make an investment in Emanuel's agency, Endeavor, as it was called before it merged with William Morris. A term sheet was drawn up, but the deal went nowhere.
Trump praised Ari and Rahm in an interview I listened to this weekend. He said Ari is a friend and I think acts as an agent for him.
“Deal” would be the best word to describe the relationship among Rahm, Ari, and Trump, who employs Ari as his agent and gave Rahm $50,000 for his run for mayor last December.
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