On the subject of corporate partnerships, Sillerman said he underestimated the time it would take to sign up sponsors for SFXs events. Eight years later he unloaded a bunch of stations to Hicks Muse for $2.1 billion. Five years later, Clear Channel spun off those concert assets into a separate company, Live Nation, which in 2010 merged with Ticketmaster to become Live Nation Entertainment, the biggest concert promoter in the world. To Sillerman the soft patch was an opportunity to reload. Robert F.X. NEW YORK CITY, NY - SEPTEMBER 18: (L-R) Jody Morrow, Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Laura Baudo Sillerman and Robert Sillerman attend NEW YORKERS FOR CHILDREN 2007 Fall Gala at 583 Park Avenue on September 18, 2007 in New York City. She also criticized the investors and analysts watching the company, saying they spent much of 2015 ignoring all indications that the Company was in a poor financial state and ignored key developments like a decision by Moodys to downgrade SFXs credit rating a development that under normal circumstances would be a significant red flag for investors. When SFX went public in Oct. 2013, businesses the company owned or was in the process of acquiring earned $14.6 million in adjusted EBITDA on combined revenue of $239 million. Robert F.X. Investor Robert Sillerman is combining the King, American Idol, and other entertainment assets to build his next media conglomerate. Read the original story on The New York . In 2001, Britains ITV put Fullers baby, Pop Idol, on the air. (Per capita, Canadian Idol is much bigger than its U.S. I dont know whether its directed at a specific individual, or a type of individual, or more as my interpretation of Albert Einsteins fabulous quote: No problem can ever be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. And thats what Ive done my whole life. He was one of the producers of The Producers, the Broadway hit, written by his friend Mel Brooks, that ran for six years and pushed the limits of ticket prices on Broadway. By the time Mr. Sillerman began buying radio stations in the late 1970s, he was using a new name: Robert F.X. Striking a deal shouldnt be that difficult. 19 is currently renegotiating the fee for next season, and some think the ante could be upped to $2 million per episode (though a reported flap over American Idol judge Simon Cowells compensation could be complicating matters). SFX Entertainment is likely well-managed on the festivals and business unit level and the companys shortcomings, in our view, appear to be with holding company management and its board of directors, which have arguably destroyed shareholder value, said analyst Richard Tullo of Albert Fried. But an informed source says that Lisa Presleys spending habits were also an issue: She had been running through $5 million to $7 million a year, amounts that closely matched the annual net income of EPE. He followed the 1998 sale with a Feb. 29, 2000, deal that Playbill called a quantum leap on the first Leap Day of the century, selling his concert and theatrical production firm SFX Entertainment to Clear Channel for $3.2billion. (Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images). The suit alleges that Sillerman in emails promised a joint partnership in which the plaintiffs would receive 2.5 million "founders shares" of SFX, which never materialized. In just the past few weeks weve seen a flurry of deals by companies seeking to profit from this tumult: TV networks are offering shows for sale, AOL is selling vintage programs online, and cellphones and iPods can now deliver music, video, and TV. Im also confident that we will create a better experience for the fans, Mr. Sillerman said in an interview with The New York Times. Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, The Price Is Rightthese shows go on for decades. This past season American Idol ratings averaged over 27 million viewers per episode, up 5% from last season. Young Sillerman graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis in 1969 after becoming immersed in counterculture politics and rock & roll. Contestants on the new Fox hit So You Think You Can Dance.Jason Merritt FilmMagic/Getty Images, So why did Sillerman buy Fullers company? Robert F.X. And I haven't a fucking clue what they do or what they're talking about. Mr. Sillerman gained control of the Presley estate. In 2011, he sold that company for $512 million and tried his hand at commercial real estate with decidely less luck, defaulting on a loan from Credit Suisse equalling $21.4 million. Not a clue. Late last year Lisa Presley flew to New York to meet Sillerman face to face. On Friday, the stock closed at 91 cents a share. Robert F.X. Sillerman and Shelly Finkel, his close associate and SFX's eventual vice chairman, hardly listened to the music but saw the opportunity in what they believed to be the millennial generations rock and roll. He was married to Laura Baudo. That means $125 million out of the $306 million paid for these two companies exceeds any tangible assets, including the value of trademarks. The entrance is through original doors from the Paramount Theater. There were people who told me, Im not doing a deal with this guy, hes going to die, Estopinal says. When asked what exactly went wrong with SFX, Sillerman offered two explanations: mistakes in management and a misunderstanding of the complexity and time of marketing partnerships. He did not name any specific people with regards to personnel issues, though music industry sources pointed to the fact that many of the people who sold their businesses to SFX did not stay long after closing their deals. All rights reserved. As his business world collapses around him, Sillerman seemed relatively relaxed over the phone. But Mr. Sillermans success ran out in recent years when he tried to repeat his concert model with a new version of SFX Entertainment, this time going after electronic dance music, or EDM a bull market in 2012, when Mr. Sillerman opened the company with a $1 billion war chest. As a teenager he started his own greeting card company, buying cards in bulk and enlisting youngsters to sell them. Over half a million tourists from all over the world stream into the shrine called Graceland each year. Sillerman had no intention of consolidating the EDM industry before he met Paolo Moreno in January 2012, said Steven Feldman, a Hueston Hennigan LLP attorney representing Moreno and two other plaintiffs. Sillerman, the New York entertainment businessman who consolidated a series of companies and helped form the modern concert industry, died Sunday of a respiratory illness, Billboard. In February 2016, SFX filed for bankruptcy, brought down in a cash crunch that Estopinal now partially blames on overpaying for the assets that came to make up SFX. Clear Channel would later spin off its concert holdings into Live Nation in 2005 with CEO Michael Rapino at the helm, which grewinto the most dominate company in music, with $15 billion in revenue reported in 2019. SFX grew into the nations seventh-largest chain and sold its 71 radio stations for $2.1 billion in 1998. "[9], On February 8, 2011, Sillerman announced an agreement to acquire control of Gateway Industries, Inc. (GWAY.PK). In other words, distribution companies are falling all over each other to reach customers through new, competing outlets. Robert FX Sillerman (born 1949) is an American businessman and media entrepreneur. What was most impressive about his $389 million deal with Westinghouse (which was convinced that it needed to become a big player in the business) in 1989 wasnt that it was his biggest score ever; it was the fact that the market for radio stations tanked soon after. But from 2013 to 2014, the increase slowed to 11%; this year, its only 2.5%. His father, Michael McKinley Sillerman, was a radio executive who went bankrupt when his son was 13. He made billions of dollars in two huge sales, but died in bankruptcy, pursued by the government and suffering the painful complications of a decade of throat cancer, eating out of a feeding tube and findingit increasingly difficult tobreathe. However, since doubts of Sillerman's take-private began to emerge in July, the company hasn't disclosed a bona fide competing offer. Another show with legs? But where did it go wrong for SFX? Sillerman, 57, a Wall Street operator with a long history of minting money in the media business. Despite having established brands, the festivals that were acquired by Sillerman's empire collectively moved in the opposite direction of what was expected. [12], In May 2009, Credit Suisse filed a request for summary judgment in New York State Supreme Court, alleging Sillerman had failed to pay the outstanding balance due under a credit agreement with Flag Luxury Properties LLC and that Sillerman defaulted on a series of payments due since April 2008, totaling $21.4 million. Sillerman told Estopinal he had $1billion to spend on the rollup on an S-1 form announcing the IPO of SFX, Sillerman listed holdings that included online marketplace Beatport, the American-arm of Dutch company ID&T that produced festivals Tomorrowland and Sensation, Electric Zoo founders Made Events, German promoteri-Motion and Australias Stereosonic festival producer Totem Onelove Group. counterpart.) Attracting funds, at least at this point, wont be a limitation. AI Is Creeping Into the 'Functional' Music Market What H Meet the Women in Music Honoree Who Escaped the Iron Curtain, Bright Eyes Return to the Road With Eight-Date U.S.Tour, Brandi Carlile, Trey Anastasio & Stick Figure To Headline 2023 LevitateFestival, British Indie Rockers Lovejoy Announce 20-City U.S.Tour, It Takes a Lot of People to Create All This AIMusic. Entertainment mogul Robert Sillerman is facing foreclosure on his $16 million Upper East Side town house for defaulting on a $12.5 million loan since 2015, a new lawsuit claims. He passed away in his sleep on Sunday at the age of 71. Bob is like a Clint Eastwood character in an old Western movie, says Dennis Arfa, a business associate of Sillerman. In December 2016, former SFX board member Mitch Slater sued Sillerman for an unpaid $2.5 million loan from 2015. Obviously the market had spoken loud and clear that it believed the five-and-a-quarter deal was never coming, said Sillerman in one of his first interviews since announcing the privatization plan. But for years he had maintained a golden touch in building media franchises and extracting maximum value from them. Ive tried to get him drunk to get him to tell me, says Brucie. [14] Robert F.X. The massive property that was assembled from four different plots of land has just hit the market for a staggering $150 million. American Idol is the No. Sillerman has passed away at age 71, according to The New York Times. Embattled music executive Robert Sillerman, who founded the company that would eventually become ticketing and concert giant Live Nation, has died at the age of 71. Even very young people. He can outlast and outtalk anybody. Says a close colleague: His BlackBerry messages start at 6 A.M. and never stop into the night. On August 14, Sillerman tabled his bid, saying that the markets made the ability to complete a deal virtually impossible., The fact the market said--which its entitled to--We dont believe that this deal is going to close is one thing, he said. All Rights Reserved. While Sillermans buying spree made sense to few of the sellers in the later 90s, the dots quickly connected by the time he sold the business. The man who bought Elvis is Robert F.X. In June 2007, Sillerman told investors of CKX--a Nasdaq vehicle hed created with intellectual property rights to American Idol, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali--that hed pay $13.75 a share to take the company private. 19 also manages the career of soccer superstar David Beckham and his wife, Victoria (a.k.a. Yes, Elviss core fans are aging, but young people still are drawn to the man with the oversized Q-rating. ), Sillerman, who had extensive exposure to the rock & roll business as a radio executive and concert promoter, realized that owning the rights to a rock act could be a great business. Even when he was being sued in the end and was broke, hacking and wheezing with a hole in his throat and eating through a feeding tube, he was cracking blowjob jokes and talking about how he was going to f this guy and how this other guy was a scumbag.. You either have to grow or go down. In other words, Elvis is a classic buying opportunity: The underlying fundamentals are sound, but current management has been unable to take the business to the next level. SFX Broadcasting sold its 71 radio stations for $2.1 billion in 1998. Sillerman stood stone-faced on the cover of Billboard magazine. Sillerman was known for pushing the envelope. Those companies promised two things. As a business, though, Elvis has been stagnating. And because Sillerman was known as a savvy business mogul within the entertainment industry, his faith in the Company was interpreted as evidence that SFX was in fact valuable, even if that value was not yet reflected in the Companys financial reports, McMahon wrote. Its sad how things ended because he really was a bright guy, but in the end he carried a lot of pain. In February 1982 the probate judge told the trustees of the estate that he feared it would go bankrupt because of taxes and legal fees, says Jack Soden, a Kansas City money manager brought in to advise the Presley family. (Photo credit: Jonas Roosens/AFP/Getty Images). That suit, led by dance promoter Paolo Moreno, alleges that Sillerman, who was completely unfamiliar with dance music, took the idea to acquire and combine global EDM companies from him and his associates after they had agreed to work with the businessman and Finkel. We had to do something right away to make money, and that something was to open up Graceland for tours., On the first day Soden and Elviss ex-wife, Priscilla, opened up the Memphis mansion, 3,024 fans filed in, paying $5 each. The Bolshoi Ballet came en masse to Graceland, Soden recalls. Hes probably smartest person Ive ever met, saidShelly Finkel, a longtime boxing and music manager who co-founded SFX with Sillerman in 2011. Within a matter of weeks it is likely that CKX will announce some sort of Elvis Presley or Graceland-themed casino in Las Vegas. and attractions such as Memphis' Graceland to Robert Sillerman, . Some $124 million was in cash upfront and $31 million in stock, with the balance to be paid in cash or stock after Fullers company reports its year-end numbers. CKX also gets royalty rights to 24 Elvis movies. While he pointed to lucrative deals with Anheuser Busch, MasterCard and T-Mobile and those companies increased yearly ad spend, the SFX CEO admitted that his earlier business models anticipated greater participation from brands. He is from USA. DJ Afrojack (left) and Sillerman at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York in 2013. Some of those companies listed werent done deals, Estopinal tells Billboard, adding that Sillerman misrepresented his financing and capitalization as he put SFX together. Moreover, those familiar with the live events industry know that festivals can lose millions of dollars in their early years as they try to build their fan bases. Once on the Forbes 400 list, . Nearly three years ago, Robert F.X. Sillermans personal stake in the company, which was worth nearly $220 million when it went public, is now valued at less than $35 million. Robert F.X. By then Sillerman was already toiling away on his next project, SFX Entertainment, a company that would own concert venues and other media properties. Moreno claims that Sillerman was mainly brought in to help organize financing for the business and that he had presented his plan to others, like billionaire Ron Burkle, before choosing Sillerman. He also made money on Broadway as an executive producer for Mel Brooks' musical The Producers. Well, its a little early to ask that question. Really? But in making his push for the new version of SFX in 2012, he spoke with boundless optimism about the potential for his new company. All these ballet dancers from Russia were huge Elvis fans, and [their handlers] were asking for our help to get them out of here and back to rehearsal. Hes obviously smart, and he doesnt b.s. Their daughter, Mackinley, died in 2012. SFX raised $260 million in its initial public offering. We have estimated Robert F.X. 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