Ari Emanuel’s Mari Acquires Broadway and West End Theater Owner ATG Entertainment
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Ari Emanuel's live-events company Mari has confirmed it will acquire Broadway and West End theatre owner ATG Entertainment from private equity firm Providence Equity in a deal valued at $6 billion, with terms otherwise undisclosed. The transaction, still subject to regulatory approval, marks a rare shake-up of the theatre ownership landscape and follows Mari's October 2025 purchase of ticketing platform TodayTix, cementing the company's expansion into live theatre. Once completed, ATG will keep its existing brand and leadership and retain "creative independence," according to the companies.
ATG is the third-largest Broadway theatre owner with seven venues, behind the Shubert Organization's 17 and the Nederlander Organization's nine, and also holds ten West End theatres including the Lyceum (The Lion King) and Savoy (Paddington the Musical), plus roughly 70 venues in total across Britain, the US, Germany, Austria and Spain. Providence Equity bought its majority stake in ATG for about $500 million in 2013 from Exponent Private Equity. Emanuel, who is also CEO of TKO and executive chairman of WME Group, called the move a "long-term bet on where live goes next," while producer Sonia Friedman, an ATG partner behind shows including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, welcomed the investment as support for the industry's long-term sustainability.
- Mari confirms $6bn deal to buy Broadway/West End owner ATG Entertainment
- Deal still needs regulatory approval; ATG keeps its brand and leadership
- ATG owns 17 theatres across Broadway and West End, ~70 venues overall
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Ari Emanuel is a well-known Hollywood dealmaker, best known for founding the talent agency WME and for running TKO, the company behind WWE and UFC. His newer venture, Mari, is focused on live entertainment, and it recently bought TodayTix, a popular platform for buying theatre tickets. This deal is the next step in that push, bringing Mari into the business of actually owning theatres, not just selling tickets to them.
ATG Entertainment is one of the biggest theatre owners in the world, with venues on Broadway in New York and in London's West End, as well as sites across Europe. It has been owned by the private equity firm Providence Equity since 2013. Theatre ownership in these two markets has traditionally been controlled by a small number of long-standing operators, so a change of hands at this scale is unusual.
The deal matters because it signals how major entertainment companies increasingly see live, in-person events, such as theatre, sport and concerts, as a growth area, even as streaming and digital media dominate elsewhere. It also raises questions for people who work in or depend on these theatres, from producers to performers, about how ownership by a larger, more commercially driven company might shape decisions in future, though ATG says its current leadership and branding will stay in place.
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