Subsidiary | |
Founder | Mark McCormack |
Headquarters | 200 5th Ave, New York City, New York, United States |
Area served
|
25+ countranuel (co-CEO) Patrick Whitesell (co-CEO) |
Number of employees
|
3,000+ |
Parent |
William Morris Endeavor (Silver Lake Partners) |
Divisions | Events & Media College Golf Tennis Performance IMG Academy Fashion Models Clients Consulting Licensing Joint Ventures Art + Commerce The Miss Universe Organization |
Website | www |
IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, other events and talent management company headquartered in New York City. It has been owned by William Morris Endeavor and Silver Lake Partners since 2013. Trans World International (TWI) is the event company of IMG.
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, 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.