Latest in MSG

UDPATED, 2 PM: The Los Angeles Clippers are now official owners of the Forum.  Clippers owner Steve Ballmer closed a deal Monday to purchase the Forum from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. The close of escrow comes six weeks after Ballmer-backed CAPSS LLC announced it had agreed to pay $400 million for the…

It was a week filled with wheeling and dealing, as new pacts to build, merge, spin-off and create were announced by real-world and digital entities. There was also a pause to remember Robert Freeman, who photographed some of the early and influential Beatles albums. This week in music: BMG BUILDS OUT LA PRESENCE: BMG…

Shares in the Madison Square Garden Co. gained more than 2% today to reach a new record high and have risen 17% since Wednesday’s news that MSG plans to spin off the New York Knicks and Rangers sports franchises. The stock ended the trading day at $312.92, on more than triple the average trading volume, at one point…

Andrew Lustgarten has been upped to the new role of President of the Madison Square Garden Co, effective immediately. David O’Connor, a former partner in CAA had been leading MSG for the past two years but abruptly exited last month and the company’s exec chairman/CEO James Dolan stepped in. Lustgarten will report to…

David O'Connor has stepped down from Madison Square Garden, and James Dolan is coming in as interim president and CEO. The abrupt move, announced Monday, was a surprise. The former longtime agent and CAA partner, better known as ‘Doc’ O’Connor, had gone to MSG just a little more than two years ago. As head honcho at…

CAA partner David "Doc" O'Connor's new bosses as The Madison Square Garden Company have confirmed his hiring as president/CEO and set a July 15 start date. That brings to a close a 30-year run at CAA as one of the Young Turks — Richard Lovett, Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane and Jay Moloney were the other core dealmakers…

David “Doc” O’Connor was one of the young turks at CAA who helped shape the agency into the modern Hollywood superpower that it is after the exits of co-founders including Ron Meyer and Michael Ovitz. The question was always how long that core group of partners — including Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, Kevin Huvane…

Accelerating plans to split into two publicly traded companies, Madison Square Garden Co. filed papers today outlining a different structure than it proposed in October 2014. Under the new terms, MSG would split its sports and live entertainment operations away from its media business. MSG originally planned to…

We’ll see whether this slows the company’s plan to split into separate entertainment and sports entities. But there’s not much Madison Square Garden can do about that: CEO Tad Smith announced this morning that he’ll leave at the end of the month to take the top job at Sotheby’s auction house. MSG Chairman James Dolan…

Madison Square Garden Company shares leapt 19.2% in postmarket trading after it said that it will explore a plan to spin off its entertainment businesses from its media and sports ones and repurchase $500 million worth of its stock. The spinoff would create a company that controls and manages entertainment at venues…

Producer Harvey Weinstein and director Diane Paulus, already collaborating on the upcoming Broadway musical Finding Neverland, are teaming with Madison Square Garden Entertainment to launch a new spring extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall featuring the Rockettes, to be staged and choreographed by Warren…

Some Fuse staffers began getting pink slips today as the operation readies to merge with NuvoTV. Meetings with various categories of employees were held throughout the morning, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, who described a waiting-for-the-tumbrel scene filled with confusion and consternation…