Saudi Arabia and Endeavor have "gone through a messy breakup, set in motion by the murder last October of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," less than a year after the country's government fund invested $400M in the media company, according to Kelly & Hubbard of the N.Y. TIMES. Sources said that Endeavor in recent weeks returned the full investment, "effectively severing Endeavor’s relationship with Saudi leaders." It is "one of the few instances of a major company halting business with the wealthy kingdom to protest its agents’ assassination of a journalist." The alliance with Endeavor was one that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman "hoped would lift the kingdom’s nascent entertainment sector." Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel directly "informed officials with the Saudi fund that he intended to return" the investment. A source said that he was "worried about the Saudi reaction," and he "began traveling at times with bodyguards." Sources said that Emanuel "canvassed other investors, including some who already had put money into Endeavor, to help fill the void that would be left when the firm returned the Saudi money." The process "wrapped up in the past few weeks, with Endeavor investors kicking in money and the company repaying Saudi Arabia" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/9).
