Endeavor Freezes Hiring for Remainder of the Year

The Beverly Hills-based company said Tuesday it will backfill positions

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Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. has frozen hires for the remainder of 2022, citing a wider economic downturn.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Wall Street firm RBC Capital Markets Tuesday, Endeavor president Mark Shapiro said that the firm will put in place a hiring freeze until 2023, Deadline reports.

The Beverly Hills-based parent company of talent agencies WME and IMG, UFC, On Location, OpenBet and more will, however, be backfilling positions.

The president said the hiring freeze will come “once we get a well-deserved Thanksgiving for our employees,” and emphasized that it’s being instated “not because we’re seeing anything in the business,” but due to broader economic concerns. “We need to really be prudent. We’re in or walking into a recession. We’ve got a war still going on, inflation’s where it’s at.”

The executive emphasized that Endeavor’s plan to freeze hiring arrives at a time when things slow down during the holiday season, saying that “we just need a lean cost structure, quite frankly, as tight as we can have it. Hiring over the holidays is no good, you’re just giving them vacation anyway.”

Shapiro also stressed that the obstacles facing marketing-based companies has not affected Endeavor in the same devastating degree. Meanwhile, Endeavor joins a growing list of other entertainment companies like Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Paramount who have employed similar measures in recent weeks.

Endeavor’s third quarter earnings, as reported by TheWrap earlier this month, detailed a 12% dip in revenue and a prediction from the Ari Emanuel-led entertainment conglomerate that full-year revenue will come in below Wall Street predictions. Endeavor forecasted $5.24 billion to $5.33 billion for 2022 compared to the average of $5.36 billion posited by analysts.

“Our business performed well in the quarter despite a turbulent macroeconomic environment,” CEO Emanuel said in a prepared statement. “Given our unique positioning relative to a set of highly resilient secular industry trends across premium sports and entertainment content and live events, we remain confident in our ability to continue delivering on our long-term growth strategy while also being good stewards of capital.”

Deadline first reported the news out of Tuesday’s RBC Capital Market conference.

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