Endeavor chief Ari Emanuel received a roughly $84 million pay package last year — between his base salary, bonus, stock awards and other compensation — the company disclosed in its proxy filing on Thursday.
President Mark Shapiro received $38.8 million, by those same measures, in 2023, while executive chairman Patrick Whitesell saw $13.2 million in pay, the filing disclosed.
The Endeavor pay for Emanuel and Shapiro include their paydays at TKO Group Holdings, the owners of WWE and UFC, where Emanuel’s compensation package was valued at nearly $65 million last year.
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After a three-year run as a public company, Endeavor is set to go private in a reversal for Silver Lake and the executives running the company. But Emanuel, Whitesell and Shapiro will all be the beneficiaries of some generous deal-related bonuses.
For starters, they are incentivized to be sellers. While a source says that no major asset sales are imminent and there is no rush to sell anything off, the deal stipulates that Emanuel and president Shapiro receive asset sale bonuses, with Emanuel getting $25 million when certain unspecified assets are sold and Shapiro earning up to $100 million if all the businesses on the block are sold. The only Endeavor assets that can’t be sold, per the deal? WME’s representation business and the majority stake in TKO.
Emanuel and Whitesell will each get a private plane from Endeavor’s fleet, with the company reimbursing them for business use, while Shapiro “will have reasonable access to the private aircraft available to the Company (when available).”
Exec chairman Whitesell will stick around as chairman of Endeavor and is expected to continue his work with WME, but Silver Lake is also committing $250 million to finance a new media company.
Emanuel and Whitesell (if he chooses to continue with WME) will receive royalty payments representing 2.5 percent of net cash profits from WME. If Whitesell opts to leave instead, he will receive a lump sum of $60 million. Shapiro will get a salary bump to $7 million and a guaranteed bonus of $15 million, plus equity of 1 percent of the private company.
The go-private deal also carries hefty termination fees: If Endeavor receives a superior proposal, it would have to pay Silver Lake $288.5 million. And if Silver Lake breaches the deal, it will have to pay Endeavor $705 million.
