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Only a handful of bidders with fists full of cash are still in the hunt for The Team.
At the start of the year, the sale of Casey Wasserman’s formerly eponymous company wasn’t on anyone’s 2026 M&A bingo card. Now, it’s well underway, and while the “insane” $4 billion asking price that I first reported in March isn’t likely, north of $3 billion definitely seems within reach.
The Team’s robust and diverse portfolio encompasses: talent representation across sports (athletes, coaches and broadcasters), Hollywood, music, media and creators; marketing work with brands, including strategy, creative and experiential; live event production and sponsorships; and hospitality sales for everything from Formula 1 races to Bon Jovi’s Forever Tour.
So when I talked with dealmakers about a hypothetical sale of Wasserman’s entertainment and sports empire, there was a consensus that potential buyers’ business conflicts and the price tag would eliminate most Hollywood players and instead attract deep-pocketed private equity firms.
From what we’ve seen, that’s all proven true. Among the surviving bidders is just one traditional entertainment player, and it has private equity in tow: UTA with the backing of EQT. The other suitors: Patrick Whitesell’s WIN Sports Group; Excel Sports Management with new partner Goldman Sachs; Providence Equity Partners, the current majority owner of The Team; and a couple of other PE players.
The Goldman investment that valued Excel at $1 billion in November is still the comp of choice, according to dealmakers familiar with the market. Sales prices are generally calculated based on a multiple of a company’s EBITDA (finance speak for revenue minus operating costs), and talent representation businesses have typically been going for low-teens multiples. Excel got a higher multiple and is generally viewed as an unusually rich outlier — but, at the end of the day, the buyers make the call. So a mid-teens multiple on $200 million EBITDA for The Team might not be out of the question.
Indications of interest — M&A parlance for non-binding initial bids — were submitted on April 20, and the field of potential buyers is narrowing as I type.
The next phase will see suitors diving into due diligence, getting access to company contracts and financials, and meeting with management of various divisions of The Team as they decide whether to move forward and submit a revised offer.
Information lids become tight once potential buyers get serious, but I’ve talked to dealmakers around town who are dialed in to the latest activity about who’s still in the game and the questions and conflicts looming over their bids.
What’s clear now: This is no longer a wide-open auction. It’s a small, high-stakes fight between strategic buyers who want to scale and financial players who need an operator.
Today, I’ll break down bidder-by-bidder…
- Why UTA may have to overpay — and the conflicts that come with it
- The shiny Wasserman assets that could trip up a UTA deal
- Patrick Whitesell’s quiet build — and why he may be the toughest bidder left
- The backer Whitesell won’t use, and where he might find funding
- Why Excel’s interest caught dealmakers off guard, and how Goldman changes the math
- Three private equity firms in the mix, and the operator problem each would have to solve
- Whether The Team stays intact — or gets carved up after a sale
Don’t stop here
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