Florida’s IMG Academy gets new owner. Endeavor selling for $1.25 billion, report says

Jason Dill
·1 min read

After owning Bradenton-based IMG Academy for more than nine years, Endeavor Group Holdings is selling the private sports academy and school to BPEA EQT for $1.25 billion, according to various reports.

Endeavor, owners of UFC, recently bought World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in a reported deal that gives the two companies a merger valued at more than $21 billion.

Endeavor had purchased IMG Worldwide, which included the Bradenton school and academy, in late 2013 for $2.3 billion. The deal was finalized in 2014.

Nick Bollettieri, who died at age 91 at his Bradenton home in December, founded the academy in 1978 and sold it to IMG’s Mark McCormick in 1987.

Endeavor’s sale means IMG Academy will have a fourth owner in its 45-year history.

The new owners, BPEA EQT, is an Asian private equity firm and a division of global investment firm EQT. The deal is in conjunction with BPEA EQT’s portfolio company, Nord Anglia Education, which runs international schools in 33 countries, Reuters reported.

Nord Anglia has partnerships with the Juliard School, MIT and UNICEF, according to Yahoo Finance.

IMG Academy encompasses more than 500 acres in Bradenton Florida’s Bayshore Gardens, and it offers various sports training such as football, basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, track and field and more. The academy has hosted multiple professional, college and high school events.

They’re an international sports factory, drawing students from around the world and countless graduates have played at the college and the professional levels across various sports.

Endeavor’s purchase for IMG Academy in 2014 under the name of its Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor and Silver Lake Partners.

WME-IMG reorganized in 2017 as Endeavor.

IMG Academy’s owners, Endeavor, are reportedly selling the private sports academy to an Asian private equity firm for $1.25 billion. Part of the sprawling campus is shown here in a 2018 file photo.
IMG Academy’s owners, Endeavor, are reportedly selling the private sports academy to an Asian private equity firm for $1.25 billion. Part of the sprawling campus is shown here in a 2018 file photo.