IMG (company)

IMG
Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1960
Headquarters	200 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010, United States
Area served	25+ countries
Key people	Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, co-Chief Executive Officers
Owner	William Morris Endeavor; Silver Lake Partners
Number of employees	3,000+
Divisions	Events & Media; College; Golf; Tennis; Performance and IMG Academy; Fashion; Models; Clients; Consulting; Licensing; Joint Ventures; Art + Commerce; Pageantry: The Miss Universe Organization
Website	www.img.com

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IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, other events and talent management company headquartered in New York City.^[1] Trans World International (TWI) is the event company of IMG.

History

IMG was founded by Mark McCormack, an American lawyer who spotted the potential for athletes to make large incomes from endorsement in the television age; he signed professional golfers Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as his first clients. McCormack died in 2003. In 2004 Forstmann Little led by Theodore J. Forstmann acquired the company; Forstmann served as chairman and CEO until his death in late 2011.

In 2006, IMG Media acquired nunet AG,^[2] a provider of mobile TV services to mobile network operators around the world. Clients of nunet's mobile TV CMS currently include: Vodafone, Proximus, Vodacom, Mobilkom A1. Content distributed currently includes MTV, Fashion TV, Eurosport, and Discovery Networks.

In November 2007, IMG acquired Kentucky-based Host Communications, which had multiple business units with services ranging from sports marketing and broadcasting to the management of associations and non-profit organizations. The sports-related businesses were combined with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) to form IMG College, while the association management division was renamed IMG Associations.

IMG was founded and headquartered in Downtown Cleveland in a complex built in 1965 diagonally across the street from Erieview Tower. When the IMG Center was built, it originally housed the Cuyahoga Saving Bank, which was acquired by Charter One Bank in 1998. In 1997, IMG renovated the Cuyahoga Savings Bank Building and renamed it IMG Center. At street level they have a projection screen showing their businesses, events and clients, with images ranging from Formula One racing to professional golfers. Following the acquisition of IMG by Forstmann Little, the headquarters remained in Cleveland, Ohio for several years until officially relocating to its new parent company's existing offices in New York, in 2010, though the IMG Center is still located on East Ninth Street in Cleveland.

On October 15, 2010, IMG acquired ISP, the multimedia rights holder for more than 50 universities based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a result of the acquisition, IMG College retained ISP's former headquarters in Winston-Salem.^[3]

On December 3, 2012, The Premier League announced that IMG Media had agreed a new three-year deal with the Premier League for aeroplanes and ships rights.^[4]

On December 18, 2013, IMG was acquired by William Morris Endeavor and Silver Lake Partners in a $2.2 billion deal.^[5] WME’s Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell will serve as co-CEOs. IMG and its more than 3,000 employees worldwide will continue as an independent entity.

On June 25, 2015, IMG entered into a multi-year exclusive partnership with London-based golfscape to power luxury destination courses with online golf bookings infrastructure and digital concierge service.^[6]

Media

IMG distributes over 32,000 hours of content—originating from more than 200 clients and events—to major global broadcasters annually, across all forms of media including TV, audio, fixed media, inflight and closed circuit, broadband and mobile. The company’s multimedia product offering includes production of all Channel 4 Racing broadcasts, the inCycle and Golfing World shows, while IMG also produces and distributes Sport 24, the first ever live global premium 24-hour sports channel for the airline and cruise industries, and EDGEsport, the 24-hour premium action sports channel. It maintains the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage and operates joint ventures with the PGA European Tour (European Tour Productions), Associated Press (SNTV) and Asian Tour (Asian Tour Media).

IMG Academy

IMG Academy is a private educational institution located in Bradenton, Florida, and specializing in sports training. The boarding school offers an Academy program for Pre-K/Elementary, Middle & High School, and Postgraduates, as well as a year-round camp program. The 500-acre campus also serves as the training and competition venue for amateur and professional teams, the host site for a variety of events, and a hub for sports performance research and innovation. Sport programs include: baseball; golf; soccer; tennis; basketball; football; lacrosse; and track & field and cross-country.

Models

IMG Models is a model management firm.

Consulting

Consulting works with many corporations on marketing and sponsorship programs, and IMG's stadium and arena group works with leagues and franchises throughout the world.

Speakers

Speakers book talent for Fortune 500 companies, associations, healthcare organizations, lecture series and colleges and universities throughout the world.^[7]

Joint ventures

IMG operates joint ventures with four major partners in four key emerging markets—Brazil, China, India, and Turkey. IMX (Brazil), CC-TV IMG (China), IMG Reliance (India) and IMG Dogus (Turkey) all work to develop sports, fashion and entertainment properties in their respective territories.

IMG has also partnered with John and Chris Evert to found the Evert Tennis Academy located in Boca Raton, Florida.

IMG events

Golf

Motorsports

Running

Surfing

Tennis

Triathlon

IMG College

In late 2007, IMG acquired Host Communications and the Collegiate Licensing Company to form IMG College. In 2010 IMG acquired ISP Sports, which was based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.^[11] Today, IMG represents the multimedia rights for more than 90 universities, conferences, collegiate associations and venues along with the licensing rights to more than 150 colleges and universities as well as the College Football Playoff. Additionally, IMG Seating serves more than 100 universities, and IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions provides outsourced ticketing services to 30 universities nationwide.