Robert Francis Xavier Sillerman (April 12, 1948 November 24, 2019)[1] was an American businessman and media entrepreneur. First, understand that Sillerman actually owns very little of Elviss music. He rides into town and leaves with all the money and the women. Sillerman has passed away at age 71, according to The New York Times. He was an executive. On Jun 7, 2012, Function (X), Inc. was renamed Viggle, which changed the company stock listing to VGGL. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Sillerman, the New York businessman who consolidated a number of U.S. concert promoters in the 1990s and created the company that would eventually become Live Nation, died Sunday.. Which suggests that Sillerman is either very confident in his ability to create more value with these two companies, or believes he can sell them to someone who has even more confidence, or both. But Sillerman was drawn to his fathers business. The company controlled the rights to booking the venue but did not own it. [2][3], Sillerman was born to a Jewish family in New York City, and was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, the son of Estelle (Levande) and Michael McKinley Sillerman. Fullers company doesnt get a direct share of ad revenues from Fox; rather, it receives a $1.2 million fee per episode. You know if you make cars or washing machines or something like that, I guess you have to focus on margins. Sillerman announced in early June that he'd be making a return to the live entertainment industry, and today he made his second purchase toward that. SFX, however, had problems from day one. Inspite of the distractions, he explained that he is 100% committed to do a deal to take SFX private and is in robust conversation with several people that want to participate with him. In her ruling, McMahon said the buyout offer was likely made to distract attention from the companys poor quarterly financial reports, which showed that SFX was bleeding money and attendance at its events dropping. 19 did some $92 million in revenues last yearwith about a third coming from the Idol showsand earned $12.6 million. Im not very knowledgeable about real estate, he reportedly told the New York Post at the time. The stock cratered. Connecting the show to phones, through the Internet, through merchandising, and ways I cant talk about yet.. Robert F.X. No question we could build a convention-sized hotel here, says Soden. Over half a million tourists from all over the world stream into the shrine called Graceland each year. He also carried heavy personal pain after the suicide of his 18-year-old daughter Mackinley in 2012, losing his only child in the home he shared with his wife Laura Baudo Sillerman. Elvis was available. (Note: CKX also recently bought MBST, a small talent agency in L.A., which does advisory work for the Beatles company, so stay tuned.) Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk), sold the rights to RCAnow part of Sony BMGdecades ago. They wanted to marry content with distribution, where CKX will not be in the traditional distribution business. Mr. Sillermans plan transformed the concert industry even as it drew complaints, which still linger, about rising ticket prices and the outsize power of a centralized super promoter. Once a saver, always a saver: Warren Buffett says generational wealth isnt what it used to be in his annual letter Its bigger than the housing crisis: An influential economist just blamed NIMBYs for American decline, and Elon Musk CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Steve Hicks left to join another radio venture after a few years, and in 1997, Sillerman sold SFX, which then owned some 70 radio stations, to Hicks Muse for $75 a share, or $2.1 billion. Just ask the makers of the smash-hit movie Lilo and Stitch, who used an Elvis soundtrack to great success. (A spokesman for Lisa Presley declined to comment. Clear Channel had integration issues with SFX, according to one analyst, and now plans to spin off that business by early next year. The founder of SFX Entertainment rarely spoke about the impact of his daughter's death but his friends say it weighed on him and changed his outlook. Industrial Media. (Critics at the time complained that Sillerman overstepped his role by collecting fees for acting as both his companys financial advisor and investment banker during this period.) Fuller is signed up to head 19 Entertainment in a five-year contract. For its money, CKX got a 90-year lease on Graceland, stipulating, among other things, that the premises may not be used as a massage parlor, a mortuary, or [for] the manufacture, sale, or distribution of feminine hygiene products. (Gives you an idea of how much attention Lisa and Soden pay to protecting Elviss image.) Didnt work. Okay, so come on, Bob, what does F.X. She also criticized the investors and analysts watching the company, saying they spent much of 2015 ignoring all indications that the Company was in a poor financial state and ignored key developments like a decision by Moodys to downgrade SFXs credit rating a development that under normal circumstances would be a significant red flag for investors. SFX Entertainment was the largest presenter, promoter and producer of live events in the world. A serial media-industry entrepreneur, Sillerman was best-known at the time for buying up concert promoters under the rubric of SFX Entertainment and, in 2000, selling them to the radio giant. I meet the people whose places we're buying. In June 2007, Sillerman told investors of CKX--a Nasdaq vehicle hed created with intellectual property rights to American Idol, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali--that hed pay $13.75 a share to take the company private. 19 is currently renegotiating the fee for next season, and some think the ante could be upped to $2 million per episode (though a reported flap over American Idol judge Simon Cowells compensation could be complicating matters). So in the middle of one night, Bob and I took off all of our clothes and ran back and forth in front of the glass naked. I liked him, she says. around. As for Sillermans take on Lisa: I was impressed with how real and grounded she was. Robert F.X. Sillerman, the former CEO of Function (x), Inc., with orchestrating an offering fraud and diverting offering proceeds to repay loans he had previously made to the company. That didnt work out, but when we started talking, Insomniacs acquistion price was $10 million, he said. Its a word Ive never liked. He died on November 24, 2019 in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, USA. Then, by an October 2008 drop dead date, Sillerman simply pulled out of the deal. In 2011, Apollo Management purchased CKX in 2011 for $512 million. When asked what exactly went wrong with SFX, Sillerman offered two explanations: mistakes in management and a misunderstanding of the complexity and time of marketing partnerships. He did not name any specific people with regards to personnel issues, though music industry sources pointed to the fact that many of the people who sold their businesses to SFX did not stay long after closing their deals. The New York entrepreneur is most notably known for consolidating a number of U.S.. So what he said so eloquently, I say, Foff.'. In February 2014, a lawsuit was filed against Sillerman, for allegedly having defrauded a trio of business partners. Sillerman in the gift shop at Graceland, Elvis Presleys home in Memphis. We have estimated Robert F.X. So what if the next Elvis is discovered on American Idol? Viggle registers the television show a person is watching, and engages the users with a loyalty program for viewing particular programs. In some ways, thats good news for Sillerman and SFX: the cost of talent is no longer skyrocketing. Think of how we can continue to expand the show, says Fuller. This year, he agreed to pay a $179,000 fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding investors of another of his companies, Function(x). As a teenager he started his own greeting card company, buying cards in bulk and enlisting youngsters to sell them. . The last thing well be thinking about is margins, Sillerman told FORBES in July 2012. But nearly every time Sillerman sold, he and his investors made money. It comes with five bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. And sad. There are so many ways to exploit that level of awareness. So far Idol stars like Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken have sold over 14 million albums. [6] Sillerman was married to copywriter Laura Baudo, whom he met at Ingalls. The five-story home, between Lexington and Third avenues, is 5,885 square feet and was built in 1920. Sillerman was eventually pushed out of the company by creditors and it re-emerged as LiveStyle in 2017 with entertainment veteran Randy Phillips at the helm. Sillerman, Concert Industry Consolidator, Dies at 71", "American Idol Sillerman Dealt Elvis Default Heartbreak in Vegas", "Will Viggle, the 'Loyalty Program for TV' From Robert F.X. Sillerman was known for pushing the envelope. (Per capita, Canadian Idol is much bigger than its U.S. The company has teased burned investors with an "indication of interest" from an unnamed bidder. In 2001, Britains ITV put Fullers baby, Pop Idol, on the air. Five years later, Clear Channel spun off those concert assets into a separate company, Live Nation, which in 2010 merged with Ticketmaster to become Live Nation Entertainment, the biggest concert promoter in the world. Over a few years in the late 1990s, Mr. Sillerman and his new company, SFX Entertainment, spent more than $2 billion acquiring dozens of promoters and venues, creating the concert worlds first truly national force. An October IPO on the NASDAQ raised $260 million for the company with shares priced at $13, but in the space of two-and-a-half years, the price of the company dropped to a penny a share. While he pointed to lucrative deals with Anheuser Busch, MasterCard and T-Mobile and those companies increased yearly ad spend, the SFX CEO admitted that his earlier business models anticipated greater participation from brands. In September 2012, Sillerman announced his biggest project to date on the cover of Billboard, sporting a black leather jacket, a global-shaped disco ball and a handkerchief in his pocket that famously read FOff., Its a universal statement, Sillerman told Billboard writer Kerri Mason. Clear Channel would later spin off its concert holdings into Live Nation in 2005 with CEO Michael Rapino at the helm, which grewinto the most dominate company in music, with $15 billion in revenue reported in 2019. Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, The Price Is Rightthese shows go on for decades. This past season American Idol ratings averaged over 27 million viewers per episode, up 5% from last season. (Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images). He was also starting to run afoul of the SEC an audit by the firm BDO of his company Function(x)found that Sillerman allegedly broke the law when he transferred $6.1 million into his own personal account and withdrew $500,000 in cash with no explanation and no supporting documentation. Sillerman settled the case with the SEC in June, agreeing to a $179,000 fine and a ban from holding an officer or director role at any public company. Before Bob, the whole scene was a giant Ponzi scheme.. And because Sillerman was known as a savvy business mogul within the entertainment industry, his faith in the Company was interpreted as evidence that SFX was in fact valuable, even if that value was not yet reflected in the Companys financial reports, McMahon wrote. But then to discount the price the way that it did was a self-fulfilling prophecy in that discouraged other bidders, which was unfortunate and had an implication on me and my financing., Established SFX festival events like Tomorrowland in Belgium attract thousands every year, but it's [+] unclear if newer events will have the same kind of draw. At Fridays price of 91 cents, SFXs shares are down 93% from its IPO price. What Sillerman bought was Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), a company that gets its $40 million in annual revenue from Graceland tours, onsite retailing, and licensingeach contributing a bit less than a third of the totalwith the balance derived from an apartment complex and the Heartbreak Hotel. Unable to eat solid foods, he was prone to horrible coughing fits and had to eat through a feeding tube. He also carried heavy personal pain after the suicide of his 18-year-old daughter Mackinley in 2012, losing his only child in the home he shared with his wife Laura Baudo Sillerman. Brucie and Bob bought more stations and worked their magic on operations. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Why? On Saturday, however, Sillerman was fielding questions on whether the company would go bankrupt--he said there was a zero percent chance--and admitting that he didnt work with the right people. Its also unclear if he was ever the right man for the job. Sillerman, the New York businessman who consolidated a number of U.S. concert promoters in the 1990s and created the company that would eventually become Live Nation, died Sunday. In May 2009, Credit Suisse filed a request for summary judgement in New York State Supreme Court, alleging Sillerman had failed to pay the . Sillerman the former owner of Graceland who consolidated radio stations and concert ticket sales has sold for $7.7 million. In February 2016, SFX filed for bankruptcy, brought down in a cash crunch that Estopinal now partially blames on overpaying for the assets that came to make up SFX. At the time of the companys formation, Sillerman boasted of his ability to go toe-to-toe with Live Nation Entertainment, the live events behemoth which was formed out of the firm he sold to Clear Channel for $4.4 billion in 2000. It had earlier been trading on the NASDAQ exchange. After that big deal, as with so many American business stories in 2000, things began to sour. It didnt scale and this round was young promoters that werent as established as the promoters from the first round of buyouts in the 1990s. While Sillermans buying spree made sense to few of the sellers in the later 90s, the dots quickly connected by the time he sold the business. S&P Index data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. We dont have enough time on this call to talk about the mistakes I made, said Sillerman during a 30-minute phone conversation from his New York City home, his voice gravelly and occasionally interrupted by a breathing apparatus due to a past bout with tongue cancer. When Sillerman offered to take SFX private this spring, his board (which included many holdovers from CKX) allowed him to float a bid without having financing or equity partners lined up. What about a world champion Idol drawn from all the different nations? The show venue may be moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to save money (and perhaps to fill a certain 2,000-seat theater). Mr. You either have to grow or go down. In other words, Elvis is a classic buying opportunity: The underlying fundamentals are sound, but current management has been unable to take the business to the next level. Sillerman's Dream," Deadline Holly- wood, May 10, 2011. Helped by federal deregulation of radio ownership rules, the two were able to quickly amass a chain of more than 70 stations, which they sold in 1997 to a larger rival, Capstar Broadcasting, for $2.1 billion. He wa Mr. Sillerman had recently been living in Hinsdale, N.H. For decades, Mr. Sillerman was a regular in the headlines of the financial press, buying and selling numerous media and entertainment businesses, often at a huge profit, and presenting a brash public persona that sometimes rivaled those of the celebrities he dealt with. Sillerman's income source is mostly from being a successful Executive. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information| Ad Choices When presented to the public--and later, Wall Street--the plan for SFX Entertainment seemed simple enough: roll up local EDM event organizers under one umbrella organization that could drive profits by providing structure and efficiency. All Rights Reserved. Investor Robert Sillerman, who bought Elvis Presley Enterprises, photographed with Elvis impersonators, 2005. NEW YORK CITY, NY - SEPTEMBER 18: (L-R) Jody Morrow, Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Laura Baudo Sillerman and Robert Sillerman attend NEW YORKERS FOR CHILDREN 2007 Fall Gala at 583 Park Avenue on September 18, 2007 in New York City. Even when he was being sued in the end and was broke, hacking and wheezing with a hole in his throat and eating through a feeding tube, he was cracking blowjob jokes and talking about how he was going to f this guy and how this other guy was a scumbag.. Besides buying Elvis Presley Enterprises from Lisa Marie Presley last February, Sillerman and his lieutenants have purchased the smash-hit TV show American Idol and other properties from a company called 19 Entertainment, which was owned by British pop impresario Simon Fuller. The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged New Hampshire resident Robert F.X. All these ballet dancers from Russia were huge Elvis fans, and [their handlers] were asking for our help to get them out of here and back to rehearsal. Obviously the market had spoken loud and clear that it believed the five-and-a-quarter deal was never coming, said Sillerman in one of his first interviews since announcing the privatization plan. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Once on the Forbes 400 list, . He. Sillerman was born into a media household, raised in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and attended top private schools in New York City. Capstar applied for and received permission to operate more than one class of radio station in the same market. (The balance is transaction costs.). Sillerman is largely responsible for helping create two of the biggest companies in music iHeartRadio and Live Nation through a series of deals he finalized in the late 1990s. The makers of the smash-hit movie Lilo and Stitch, who bought Presley... In Memphis.. Robert F.X his investors made money sell them with all the money and the women all. The world stream into the shrine called Graceland each year things began to sour,.... Is discovered on American Idol of awareness Deadline Holly- wood, May 10, 2011, Sillerman FORBES... 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