SFX puts its name on Marquee
Stock deal valued at $100 mil
Marquee, founded in December 1995, manages athletes and sportscasters and is a marketer, TV producer and consultant involved in a number of sports, including tennis, hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, football and horse racing.
It's an all-in-the-family deal because Robert F.X. Sillerman, executive chairman of SFX Entertainment, set up the original financing for Marquee. An SFX spokesman says the senior management of Marquee, including its president and CEO Bob Gutkowski, will sign new employment contracts with SFX.
The Marquee deal is just the latest purchase engineered by Sillerman, whose buying spree over the past 18 months has given him "44 venues either directly owned or operated under lease or exclusive booking arrangements in 22 of the top 50 markets, including 11 amphitheaters in seven of the top-10 markets," according to SFX.
In 1997 alone, SFX either promoted or produced 9,600 events, including 4,200 music concerts, 4,900 theatrical shows and more than 190 motor-sports competitions.
