The Japanese group SoftBank invests €223m in the agency WME-IMG, now valued at €4.9bn

The Japanese group SoftBank Group Corp. has invested $250m (€223m) in WME-IMG LLC, the American career management, marketing and media rights agency, on 23/03/2016. The transaction would see the value of WME-IMG rise to $5.5bn (€4.9bn) according to the US economist magazine Bloomberg, on the same day. SoftBank Group has acquired a 4.5% stake in the American agency.

Softbank Group is a multinational company with operations in mobile, media and Internet services. It also has substantial holdings in the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba and the Japanese branch of Yahoo.

"WME-IMG expects to use the capital to advance its global growth strategy through new investments, acquisitions and joint ventures," said the US agency. The marketing and media rights and agency IMG was sold to Silver Lake Partners and WME (William Morris Endeavor Entertainment) for $2.3bn, or about €1.7bn at the time, on 18/12/2013.

IMG Worldwide sold to WME and Silver Lake Partners for $2.3bn

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