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AEG Acquires Ownership Shares of
Golden Boy Promotions
May 8, 2008 |
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LOS ANGELES (May 8, 2008) – 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. |
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