AEG, considered one of the world’s leading live sports and entertainment presenters, has entered into an agreement with boxing’s leading promoter, Golden Boy Promotions to acquire ownership shares of the Los Angeles-based organization it was announced today by Oscar De La Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions and Tim Leiweke, President & CEO, AEG. The acquisition will make AEG the company’s second largest shareholder behind De La Hoya..
“Having fought and promoted many successful championship fight cards in AEG-owned venues such as STAPLES Center and The Home Depot Center, I have developed a tremendous amount of respect both personally and professionally for how AEG does business, how they operate their facilities and the integrity they have consistently shown to me and my partners at Golden Boy Promotions,” said De La Hoya. “Our new partnership will create so many new synergies from jointly promoting events in their arenas worldwide to exploring new ways to develop successful promotions built around our boxing shows taking place in their facilities. To Tim and Dan, on behalf of Richard and our partners, we look forward to many successful promotions together.”
Also participating in the announcement was Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, representing other shareholders of Golden Boy Promotions including Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley and The Brener Group and Dan Beckerman, Chief Operating Officer, AEG.
Schaefer added, “Golden Boy Promotions has always prided itself as a company that does things in a first class manner and with first class people. We couldn’t ask for better partners than Tim, Dan and everyone at AEG. They have proven themselves over the years to be the best of the best and we look forward to a long and productive relationship with them.”
In addition to hosting several of De La Hoya’s and Golden Boy Promotions’ most successful and memorable fights including De La Hoya-Mosley (STAPLES Center, June 2000), Hopkins-Eastman (STAPLES Center, February 2005), Barrera-Juarez (STAPLES Center, May 2006), Vazquez-Marquez (The Home Depot Center, March 2007) and Vazquez-Marquez III (The Home Depot Center, March 2008) and the most recent: De La Hoya-Forbes held outdoors at The Home Depot Center before a crowd of 27,000, AEG and De La Hoya have established other business partnerships including De La Hoya’s recent acquisition of ownership shares of Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo franchise owned by AEG.
“When we look at Golden Boy Promotions, we see the best management team, the best vision for boxing industry and the best ownership group in the industry. They are the future of boxing and a company we are proud to be associated with,” said Leiweke. “We have committed to adding all of our resources and assets to provide additional opportunity to grow Golden Boy into the most dominant promoters and providers of content in boxing. Perhaps the most unique aspect of this partnership is the fact that the markets that we are most rapidly expanding into are the same markets that they are hoping to grow into as well,” Leiweke added.
“From the outset, we have had tremendous respect for Oscar and Richard’s philosophy of honesty and integrity in the relationships they have with their fighters as well as business associates and partners,” said Beckerman. “Over the years, we have come to realize that we share their vision of creating a global company capable of promoting impressive and successful fight cards in venues worldwide.”
About Golden Boy Promotions:
Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions was established in 2001 by Oscar de la Hoya, the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. In 2007, in its sixth year of promoting, Golden Boy Promotions set a record by selling over 2.5 million in pay-per-view homes in a single night. Also in 2007, Golden Boy Promotions established the record for pay-per-view sales by one promotional company in a single year selling events to more than 4 million homes total. Golden Boy Promotions is one of boxing’s most active and respected promoters, presenting shows in packed venues around the United States on networks such as HBO, HBO Latino, TeleFutura, Showtime and ESPN.
About AEG:
AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, is the world’s largest investor in entertainment and sports facilities; the world’s largest presenter of live sports and entertainment events; world’s largest owner of sports teams and sports events; owner of the world’s most profitable sports and entertainment venues; world’s largest developer of sports and entertainment sponsorship and naming rights; has invested billions of dollars in sports, entertainment and media projects; and reaches billions of people each year through its facilities, events, music, theater, festivals, sports, films and media assets. AEG has a long history of success in the global sports and entertainment industries including the STAPLES Center (Los Angeles, CA), NOKIA Theatre Times Square, NOKIA Theatre at Grand Prairie (TX), the El Rey Theatre (Hollywood, CA), the WaMu Theatre (Seattle, WA), Target Center (Minneapolis, MN) and three just opened arenas, Sprint Center (Kansas City, MO), Prudential Center (Newark, NJ) and The O2, a 28-acre development located in the eastern part of London along the Thames River which includes a 20,000 seat arena and over 650,000sf of leisure and entertainment use; sports franchises throughout the world including the Los Angeles Kings (NHL), Los Angeles Riptide (MLL), the Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo (MLS) in addition to overseeing privately held management shares of the Los Angeles Lakers (NBA). AEG developed and operates The Home Depot Center, a $150 million national training facility on the Campus of California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, California designated as an “Official U.S. Olympic Training Site” by the United States Olympic Committee that includes major facilities for soccer, tennis, track & field, cycling, lacrosse, rugby, action sports, beach volleyball, basketball and other sports.
AEG’s live entertainment division, AEG LIVE is one of the world’s leading concert promotion and touring companies with fifteen regional offices and stand-alone affiliate divisions devoted to all aspects of live entertainment including: AEG LIVE Events, creators and producers of special events of all sizes; AEG-TV, creators of live events for television, DVD, pay-per-view, cinema and other electronic media and AEG LIVE Tours & Special Events, Concerts West, Goldenvoice, The Messina Group and AEG Exhibitions, the company’s national entertainment promotion and touring divisions. AEG LIVE is currently overseeing the international museum tour of the artifacts of King Tut “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” and produced Celine Dion A New Day…Presented By Chrysler, a spectacular theatrical production starring Dion and directed by Franco Dragone which just concluded an unprecedented five year “residency” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. AEG LIVE co-produces the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Goldenvoice, the company’s southern California-based regional promotion division created and operates the award winning annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Recently promoted tours have starred artists and groups including Prince, Usher, Kenny Chesney, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Yanni, the Eagles, George Strait, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, Dixie Chicks, Hannah Montana and American Idol.