Authentic Brands Group IPO: CEO change signals public offering

Authentic Brands Group announced that founder Jamie Salter expects the company to go public within the next 12 months, as the firm named Matt Maddox, a former Wynn Resorts CEO, as its new CEO.

Salter told CNBC that he will transition to executive chairman, allowing him to focus on mergers and acquisitions while Maddox takes over day-to-day operations. "There's no doubt about it that Matt is definitely a great Wall Street CEO," Salter added. "We've almost gone public twice, we've filed twice and both times we were taken out by other private equity firms at much higher prices. I think this time, the company has grown so big that I think this time we'll probably end up going public sometime in the next 12 months."

Maddox joined Authentic as president in January 2025 after a roughly 20-year career at Wynn Resorts, where he held roles including CFO, president, and CEO. His mandate in the new role will be to scale the business, drive organic growth, and create value for the firm's shareholders and partners, the company said. "The opportunity ahead is significant, and we are just getting started," Maddox said in a statement.

With a portfolio spanning more than 50 brands — among them Reebok, Champion, Brooks Brothers, Sports Illustrated, Guess, and Juicy Couture — the company reports roughly $38 billion in system-wide retail sales annually. Its core strategy involves purchasing brand IP from financially troubled companies and monetizing those assets through licensing arrangements.

Salter said his ambition is to grow Authentic into a $100 billion company over the next five years, a goal he said requires him to devote his full attention to deal-making. He added that entertainment has become the primary growth focus for the firm. "Entertainment today is roughly 20% of our business, 80% beauty and lifestyle, but I believe that over a period of time entertainment will become much stronger, going from 20% to 50%," Salter told CNBC. "The reason why I want to focus so much on the entertainment business is because it's clear as day that content drives commerce."

Talk of a listing is not new for the company — Salter floated the idea as recently as April, telling an audience at the Reuters Momentum AI event that another IPO attempt was coming. He had also said at the time that he envisioned stepping out of the chief executive role before the firm submitted paperwork to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.