Providence Equity Partners, the US-based private equity company, is close to taking full ownership of The.Team, the international sports agency formerly known as Wasserman, it has been reported.
According to Sportico, the deal will value the agency at about $3.4 billion. The firm already owns 60% of The.Team, which it bought in 2022.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Last year, Providence submitted a bid to acquire Excel Sports Management, a rival agency that was eventually purchased by Goldman Sachs.
The Team was put up for sale earlier this year amid the fallout of founder Casey Wasserman’s presence in the US government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein.
The sale process is being handled by global investment bank Moelis & Co.
Wasserman announced in February that he would sell the agency after it emerged that he flew on convicted pedophile Epstein’s private plane and exchanged flirtatious emails with associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for the sex trafficking of minors, in 2003.
Wasserman is also the chair of the LA28 Olympic host committee, a role he has retained despite pressure to resign.
No sale agreement has yet been signed, but Providence is reportedly expected to close the deal in the coming months.
Interest in Wasserman’s business empire was high, given its high-profile client list of sports players and musicians, with rival talent agencies including CAA, UTA, and WME also in the mix to buy the business.
The agency has been in operation for more than 20 years and currently employs approximately 4,000 staff.
Over the past two decades, it has developed into one of the largest talent companies in the US through a series of acquisitions, most recently bolstering its presence in Europe by securing the soccer division of Danish talent representation firm People in Sport and acquiring Barcelona-based Umik Sport Management.
Other talent agencies bought by Wasserman recently include Momentum Hockey, digital creator agency Long Haul Management, and Ireland-based athlete management firm Line Up Sports.
If a deal is finalized, it will mark the latest acquisition of a major talent agency. In addition to Excel’s sale, CAA was sold in 2023 to Artemis, the investment firm of the French Pinault family, and Octagon’s parent was sold last year.
WME Group was taken private last March as part of a reorganization of Endeavor’s assets.
Providence’s previous deals in sports have included a stake in Soccer United Marketing, Ironman, Populous, Callaway, YES Network, Learfield, and commercial tie-ups with the NFL and Real Madrid.
