IMG Worldwide, the super sports and entertainment agency, received lackluster final bids in its months-long auction because of weakness in college sports, as first reported on NYPost.com.
The division, run by George Pyne, missed a key profit target by $40 million, or nearly 50 percent of its 2013 forecast, sources said.
A haul of $90 million in Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was expected, mostly through the sales of college-related merchandise and advertising efforts, such as sponsorships. But they booked $70 million, sources said.
That shortage was increased by $20 million because of an accounting adjustment, sources said.
The agency, which is being sold as part of the wind-down of the assets of buyout firm Forstmann, Little, had been expected to fetch bids as high as $2.7 billion. Final bids on Dec. 13 were just over $2 billion.
The lowered bids were the results of the weakness in college sports, sources said.
IMG’s other far-flung businesses — in sports and fashion around the world — made their numbers for the year. “They’re sales people, not operational people,” one person close to the bidding noted of the college sports management team.
In 2009, total Ebitda reached $85 million, and it rose to $110 million in 2010. By 2012 it was $172 million and was targeted to rise to $200 million this year, although sources said it will range between $180 million and $190 million.
An IMG spokesman declined to comment.