Authentic Brands Acquires 20% Of Event Producer Medium Rare In Deal Brokered By Shaquille O’Neal

EXCLUSIVE: Authentic Brands Group said Tuesday it acquired a 20% equity stake in live events and content production company Medium Rare for an undisclosed sum.

ABG’s stakeholder, Shaquille O’Neal, helped broker the deal. The basketball great already works closely with Medium Rare, which produces a festival experience and annual Super Bowl event, Shaq’s Fun House, and oversees management of his budding career as DJ Diesel. ABG manages O’Neal’s IP globally.

The deal will let ABG tap Medium Rare’s platform to produce branded events for broadcast, streaming and in-person.

Medium Rare will be able to tap into ABG’s vast portfolio of entertainment, media and lifestyle brands including O’Neal, Sports Illustrated, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and more. Yesterday, the producer announce a partnership with Sports Illustrated to produce The Sports Illustrated Awards, a reimagined version of the annual Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year, converter into a primetime awards show with musical performances and celebrity appearances.

During the pandemic, Medium Rare has pivoted from the live event space and to a broadcast and virtual events production company, producing two free and popular virtual streaming events this year Shaq vs. Gronk and Black Entrepreneurs Day.

Shaq vs. Gronk pitted the two in head-to-head challenges and featured musical performers Snoop Dogg, DaBaby, Diplo, Steve Aoki and DJ Diesel. It drew over 9 million live viewers.

Black Entrepreneurs Day, a virtual event co-created with Shark Tank’s Daymond John that shares inspiring stories from influential black celebrities and athletes. It drew in just under 7 million viewers and featured Dwayne Wade, LL Cool J, Gabrielle Union, O’Neal, Chance the Rapper and Questlove.

Medium Rare also partnered with the NAACP to create The Powershift Grant which awarded $250,000 to up-and-coming black entrepreneurs live on the show.

Big brands the Medium Rare has brought to the virtual event space include Chase for Business, Pepsi, UPS, Cisco Webex, The General Insurance, Monster Energy, Rocket Mortgage, Intuit Quickbooks, Shopify, Robinhood, Logitech, Brooks Brothers, Nautica and others.

ABG is a development, marketing and entertainment company whose portfolio of brands generate more than $14 billion in retail sales worldwide.