Major Investor Takes A Stake In WME-IMG

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Fidelity Management & Research Co., largest mutual fund investor in the U.S., has taken a $55 million in entertainment giant WME-IMG.

Fidelity's investment comes less than a month after Japanese investor SoftBank Group Corp. acquired a minority stake in WME-IMG, as part of a deal that put the estimated value of the agency at $5.5 billion.

The Raine Group acted as financial advisor on the Fidelity deal, on behalf WME-IMG. Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal advisors.

WME-IMG, created in 2014 by WME's 2.4 billion dollar acqusition of talent and sports agency IMG, has been expanding into a variety of new arenas beyond their traditional talent representation business. Since their 2014 merger with IMG, the agency has acquired a professional bull riding league, stylist and make-up artist agency The Wall Group and an e-sports management company.

Earlier this week, the agency announced an investment in Frieze, a contemporary fine arts company, known for staging art fairs in London and New York, as well as the magazine it publishes.